Only government personnel, rescue workers to be allowed at Irshalgad landslide site

Khalapur: To ensure that there are no hurdles in the rescue work due to the crowding at the landslide-affected Irshalgad area, the Raigad collector, Yogesh Mhase, on Saturday banned the entry of all except government officials and rescue workers deployed in the area.

In the past couple of days, the area witnessed huge crowds, including political leaders and their party workers, residents, curious citizens, along with a large contingent of media personnel.

“The government is going all out to ensure rescue and relief work is conducted smoothly in the accident-prone tribal area. It is important that the government officials and rescue workers deployed in the area work unhindered at such a crucial time,” Mhase said.

He added that the rescue work has been going on continuously for the past two days despite the heavy rain in the area, and the work could suffer due to unnecessary crowding.

“We have hence decided that from Saturday there will be no unauthorised personnel allowed at the accident site in Irshalgad, Namrachi Wadi, where the rescued are being harboured, and monitoring of operations taking place and at the base camp areas,” Mhase said, adding that only those officially deployed by the government should be present in these areas.