13 dead in last 48 hours as rain fury casts killer spell in Madhya Pradesh

Five employees of a car dealership company, including a woman died after the car they were boarding plunged into a flooded canal in adjoining Sehore district on Monday morning.
A view of a flooded bridge following heavy monsoon rain at Bhedaghat in Jabalpur Monday September 9 2019. | PTI
A view of a flooded bridge following heavy monsoon rain at Bhedaghat in Jabalpur Monday September 9 2019. | PTI

BHOPAL: With 13 rain-related deaths being reported from across Madhya Pradesh over last 48 hours, destructive rains have attained killer proportions in different parts of Madhya Pradesh now.

A 35-year-old school bus driver Rizwan Khan was swept away in the overflowing downstream water of Kerwa dam in the state capital’s Kolar area on Tuesday, while the body of 22-year-old Akash Vishwakarma, who had slipped into the Bhadbhada Dam in Bhopal on Monday was fished out on Tuesday. On Sunday night, a two-year-old girl too had been swept away in a flooded nullah in Khajuri area of the capital city.

Also, five employees of a car dealership company, including a woman died after the car they were boarding plunged into a flooded canal in adjoining Sehore district on Monday morning. Four deaths were reported from Dhar and Seoni districts also. In Khandwa district, a railway employee was washed away in a flooded stream on Tuesday and despite efforts by rescue teams to find him, he couldn’t be traced.

Meanwhile, the Met Department has issued fresh rain alert for 38 out of the 52 districts over the next 24 hours. A red alert of very heavy rains has been issued for 18 districts, including most west MP districts, among them, Dhar, Khargone, Khandwa, Alirajpur, Jhabua, Barwani, Burhanpur, Ujjain, Ratlam, Shajapur, Agar-Malwa, Dewas, Neemuch, Mandsaur, besides central MP districts of Harda, Betul and Hoshangabad districts.

An Orange alert warning heavy rains in 20 districts of Central MP, Gwalior-Chambal, Mahakoshal and Vindhya region, including Bhopal, Chhindwara, Jabalpur, Mandla, Katni, Shahdol, Rewa, Guna, Balaghat, Narsinghpur, Seoni, Raisen, Rajgarh, Vidisha, Sehore, Anuppur, Dindori, Umaria, Ashok Nagar and Sagar districts has also been issued.

In the Hoshangabad district of Central MP, the Narmada water level has crossed the danger mark of 964 ft and was close to 965 ft on Tuesday evening. With gates of the dams, including Bargi dam in Jabalpur and Tawa dam in Hoshangabad having been opened to clear excess water, the Narmada river level in the district could touch 966 ft, just ft below the alarming water level.

“As many smaller rivers and nullahs too were in spate, hence around 50-60 families could be shifted to safer places by tonight or Wednesday morning,” Hoshangabad district collector Sheelendra Singh told The New Indian Express.

Several families living in low lying area in Sehore and Raisen districts too are likely to be shifted to safer places by Wednesday morning, official sources said.

In Barwani and Dhar districts of west MP, where many villages are submerged in the backwaters of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, the Narmada river was flowing 12 meter above the danger mark at Rajghat. The water level at Rajghat has touched 136 meters, which is the highest in last 49 years. Around 40 families were stranded with cattle and rescue efforts are on to save them.

In Chhatarpur district also nine persons stuck on a marooned island were rescued by the district administration on Tuesday.

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