Floods hit UP, CM Yogi Adityanath sends ministers to affected districts

LUCKNOW: As floods continue to ravage parts of the state, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday directed ministers Anil Rajbhar and Baldev Singh Aulakh to visit the flood affected areas of Gonda, Sant Kabir Nagar, Mau, Deoria and Gorakhpur among others and submit a report to him.
Principal secretary to CM, SP Goyal, said the ministers would be accompanied by principal secretary irrigation, T Venkatesh, during the survey.
Relief commissioner Sanjay Goyal said that 17 districts are flood affected. These are Ambedkarnagar, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Ballia, Balrampur, Barabanki, Basti, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Mau, Sant Kabir Nagar, Siddharthnagar, Maharajganj and Sitapur. “There are 666 villages affected out of which 446 villages are marooned,” he said.
The irrigation department said that Sharda river was flowing above the danger level in Lakhimpur Kheri, Rapti at Birdghat in Gorakhpur, Ghaghra at Elgin Bridge in Barabanki, and Saryu in Ayodhya and Ballia.
Seepage was reported from the Rapti at an embankment in Gorakhpur which the department was working to control.
Officials have been directed to patrol embankments regularly to ensure that there are no breaches. District magistrates have been asked to ensure that boats for relief work are in working condition and adequate measures have been taken to prevent the outbreak of vector-borne diseases.