Ballia jail barracks waterlogged, 939 prisoners shited

Varanasi: Non-stop rainfall on Friday and Saturday wreaked havoc in Ballia and Azamgarh districts. As many as 939 prisoners were shifted to neighbouring districts due to heavy waterlogging inside Ballia jail. Heavy pumps were being arranged to clear water logging from Azamgarh city localities.
Divisional commissioner Azamgarh Vijay Vishwas Pant, who convened a meeting of officials on Saturday evening to finalise strategies to clear waterlogged areas of Ballia and Azamgarh, told TOI, “Posh city areas of the two districts are badly hit.Most of the localities in Azamgarh are waterlogged while massive waterlogging inside Ballia jail has led to shifting of prisoners to the jails of Azamgarh and Ambedkar Nagar districts.”
Ballia district jail superintendent Lal Ratnakar Singh said due to heavy waterlogging as many as 939 prisoners including 61 women have been shifted to neighbouring districts. As many as 600 prisoners have been sent to Azamgarh jail while 339 were transferred to Ambedkar Nagar jail.”
A big band of officials remained busy in arranging buses for the shifting of the prisoners amid tight security arrangements. As the already set up 100 pumps were insuffcient, over 150 HP additional heavy duty pumps were installed to clear waterlogging in city areas of Azamgarh, Pant said.
District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar ensured that at least six marriage halls and lawns be turned into shelter homes those hit by waterlogging.
In Varanasi, where 47 mm rainfall had taken place on Friday, some brief spells of showers took place on Saturday. But, overcast conditions kept the weather conditions pleasant. As per the IMD forecast the overcast conditions will continue for two-three more days.
During incessant rainfall in Chandauli a mud house collapsed in Hingutargadh of Dhanapur and other in Sarvanandpur of Balua area in which Kamli Devi (38) and Ramdihal Yadav (48) were killed after getting buried under the debris.