Monsoon misery:Heavy rains cripple Haryana

Heavy to extremely heavy rainfall received in most of the parts of Haryana for two consecutive days triggered flood-like situations in the state, throwing the normal life out of gear and forcing authorities to issue warnings to the people living in the low-lying areas.

Repeated intense spells of rain in the past 36 hours wreaked havoc and most highways, city roads, link roads and even the residential areas remained flooded.

The state received 38.90 mm rainfall on July 9, causing waterlogging in low lying areas of Panipat, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Ambala cities. Residential areas, markets and key roads were hit and commuters were stranded across the state. In rural parts, water from overflowing rivers and drains entered into the fields, causing panic among the farmers.

As the flow in Yamuna river crossed the danger mark of 70,000 cusecs, it was measured at 84000 cusecs at the Hathnikund Barrage of Haryana at 12pm on Sunday. Officials predicted that the water flow may increase further as heavy rains were reported in the hills.

Whereas, the water of the Markanda river entered into the fields of several villages, including Tangor, Jharoli Khurd, Kathwa and Jhansa, of Kurukshetra district.

As the water level in Markanda and Saraswati rivers continued to rise for the second consecutive day, Kurukshetra district administration has issued an alert to the residents of villages and colonies located near the rivers.

Woman, son injured as roof collapses in Karnal

A woman and her son sustained injuries as roof of their two-room house collapsed in Karan Vihar locality of Karnal city.

Manju Sharma, a neighbour of the victim, said that the incident took place around 11pm on Friday. She said that they felt the thud and reached the spot. The victims were taken out with the help of locals and were admitted in the hospital.

Karnal deputy commissioner Anish Yadav said, “We have deployed teams to disseminate information about probable increase of water level in river Yamuna in the next couple of days. But as of now, there are no reports of water entering in the residential areas.”

Inundated fields, submerged crops

The rain has created flood-like situation and left lakhs of acres under paddy, sugarcane and vegetable cultivation inundated. However, officials in the state agriculture department said that reports of damage to crops will be collected as per instructions from the government.

Maize and moong growers suffered most as they were not able to sell their produce in the mandis owing to high moisture content.

“Our maize crop of two acres is ready for harvesting but we were not able to harvest the crop due to repeated spells of rain for the past one week. Sunday’s rain will cause loss to the crop as there is no possibility to harvest it for the next two weeks”, said an aggrieved farmer, Madan Lal of Radaur, the worst hit area with 246mm rain recoded in 24 hours.

“There is flood-like situation in our area and the crops are submerged. It is for the first time in several years that the water has entered our village”, said a farmer Madan Lal of Karnal’s Dhanokheri village.

Karam Chand, deputy director agriculture, Kaithal district, said that there no reports of damage to crops but waterlogging could be harmful for paddy and sugarcane. The farmers are advised to pump out excessive water from their fields.

Good for rainfed areas

Contrastingly, farmers from the rain-fed areas termed the rainfall as beneficial for the crops. Praveen Malik, a farmer from Sonepat’s Kheri village, said the rain brought respite from rising temperature and was needed amid paddy transplantation.

Ankit Sheoran, a farmer from Panchgaon village in Charkhi Dadri, said rainfall is beneficial for their cotton and bajra crop.

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an alert on Sunday and predicted heavy to extremely heavy rain in most of the districts of Haryana in the next 24 hours.

Schools closed in Kurukshetra, Ambala districts

Kurukshetra district deputy commissioner Shantanu Sharma has issued orders that all government and private schools in the district will remain closed on Monday for safety and of students.

Ambala deputy commissioner Shaleen orded closure of all govt and private schools in the district on Monday and Tuesday.

Flood-like situation in Ambala

With over 266 mm rain recorded in 36 hours from 8.30 am of Saturday till 5.30 pm of Sunday, rain broke all records in Ambala district. On Sunday, the district remained waterlogged and commuters and residents had to face a slew of problems. An abandoned house in the city and a ceiling of a police station collapsed in Ambala Cantt, but there was no loss of life reported.

Due to incessant rains in neighbouring areas, rivers, including Ghaggar, Markanda and Tangri, overflowed and water entered villages, crops and urban areas.

Ambala DC ordered temporary closure of NH-44 (Delhi-Amritsar highway) at Ambala-Ludhiana section and NH-152D (Ambala-Hisar) highway due to increased water level in Ghaggar.

“Water has breached the highway at several points and it is unsafe to travel till further notice,” he said.

Home minister and Cantt MLA Anil Vij chaired a meeting of officials and inspected various pump houses. Due to overflowing Tangri River, Cantt SDM Satinder Siwach issued an alert in villages situated along the river bed to vacate their houses and shift to dharamshalas earmarked for the purpose.

In Yamunanagar, Radaur tehsil received 259 mm rain in 36 hours from 8am on Saturday to 4 pm on Sunday with rainwater damaging several acres of paddy field.

A “Low flood” alert was issued to Haryana districts and Delhi as water level crossed 1,90,861 cusecs (at 5 pm) in the Yamuna River at Hathnikund barrage in Yamunanagar. It was 99,146 cusecs at 3 pm and 1,11,060 cusecs at 4 pm.

Delhi issues flood advisory as Haryana discharges water in Yamuna

The Delhi government issued a flood warning on Sunday as Haryana released more than one lakh cusecs of water into the Yamuna river from the Hathnikund barrage.

The irrigation and flood control department said this was the first warning, with 1,05,453 cusecs of water discharged at 4 pm.

Normally, the flow rate at the barrage is 352 cusecs, but heavy rainfall in the catchment areas increases the discharge. The water from the barrage takes around two to three days to reach Delhi.