At least 23 people have been killed, including 14 in Kolhapur and 12 in Sangli, as rains wreaked massive havoc in these Maharashtra districts since the past over one week, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday.
The flood situation due to heavy rains has worsened in western Maharashtra's Sangli with water entering the district prison, forcing authorities to shift prisoners to its upper floor, an official said on Thursday.
Following heavy downpour in Sangli in the last few days, the district jail premises, housing around 370 inmates, got inundated on Wednesday.
"Currently there is nearly knee-level water in barracks on the ground floor. We have shifted all inmates to barracks on the first floor. So far, there is no need to shift the inmates out of the jail," Additional Director General (Prisons) Sunil Ramanand said told PTI.
Till Wednesday, around 1.32 lakh flood-affected people in Pune region (comprising districts of Pune, Satara, Solapur, Sangli and Kolhapur) were shifted to safer places, Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar earlier said.
The Chief Minister said that warlike rescue efforts have been launched with over 10,000 personnel, from 13 National Disaster Response Force teams, one of the State Disaster Response Force, a column of Indian Army, 14 Navy teams, a Coast Guard team and the Air Force and local agencies engaged in rescuing people trapped in the floodwaters in the two districts.
Over 53,000 people were evacuated in Sangli, 51,000 in Kolhapur and 13,000 in Pune till Wednesday, Mhaisekar said.
"The road communication between Sangli and Kolhapur and between Kolhapur and Belgaum (in Karnataka) has been affected," he said, adding that people should avoid travelling on Mumbai-Bengaluru national highway (NH 4).
In Solapur district, 2,500 people were moved to safer places in the temple town of Pandharpur after the discharge of water from the overflowing Ujani dam increased, he said.
In Satara, the flood situation was grim in Wai, Karad and Mahabaleshwar hill town and 6,000 people were evacuated.
Teams of the Territorial Army, Navy and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were conducting rescue operations in Kolhapur and Sangli, the official said.
"All dams in the region are overflowing and the MeT department has predicted continuous rains for next few days So if the catchment areas of dams receive more rain, the possibility of more floods cannot be ruled out," he said.
The Chief Minister told reporters that the state received 104 per cent of average rain during June-August period, most of it in western Maharashtra and Konkan regions.
Meanwhile, all schools, colleges and Anganwadi centres in Karnataka's Kodagu district have been closed for two days, including Thursday and Friday, as rain continues to wreak havoc in the region.
The district administration gave the directions after Indian Meteorological Department issued 'Red Alert' in Kodagu for the next 48 hours.
Continuous rain has brought life to a standstill in the region. On Monday, the Virajpet-Kerala road was closed after being hit by landslides triggered by heavy rains in the district.
The situation may further worsen as the weather forecasting agency has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall for the rest of the week for Kodagu district.
(With Agency Inputs)
