Over 4,000 people affected by floods following the recent heavy rainfall are staying in 155 relief camps in Punjab, officials said on Wednesday. Several districts of Punjab and Haryana were recently battered by the torrential downpour that has left normal life paralysed and flooded vast tracts of residential and agricultural land.
Authorities are also engaged in relief work and plugging breaches in 'dhussi bundhs' (earthen embankments) that have come up along the Ghaggar river. An official spokesperson 26,482 flood-affected people were evacuated and taken to safer places in the state.
As many as 1,438 villages have been affected by floods in 19 districts – Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Faridkot, Hoshiarpur, Rupnagar, Kapurthala, Patiala, Moga, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Sangrur, SBS Nagar, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Mansa, Bathinda and Pathankot.
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A total of 155 relief camps are running in the state in which 4,234 people are staying, the official said. According to a report received by the revenue department from different districts, at least 38 people lost their lives due to the flooding.
Meanwhile, because of breaches in earthen embankments along the Ghaggar river in Budhlada and Sardulgarh sub-divisions in Mansa district, water entered many villages. The breach occurred near the Chandpura bundh in Budhlada and Rorki village in Sardulgarh on Saturday.
Later, two more breaches came up in Jhande Khurd village and another in Rorki village in Sardulgarh in Mansa. Because of the breach near Chandpura bundh, the Ghaggar river water entered several villages, including Gorakhnath, Birewala Dogra and Chak Alisher villages.
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Budhlada MLA Budh Ram and Mansa Deputy Commissioner Rishi Pal Singh and Senior Superintendent of Police Nanak Singh on Wednesday took stock of the plugging work of the breach near Chandpura bundh. Drainage department employees and Army personnel were engaged in plugging the breach, the officials said.
The DC said the embankments along the Ghaggar river were being strengthened and people living in flood-affected areas were being evacuated to relief camps. Eleven relief camps have been set up in Budhlada and nine in Sardulgarh by the Mansa district administration, they added.
Embankments have been built at Sadhuwala village, Phusmandi road and Mansa-Sirsa highway in order to prevent water from entering Sardulgarh city areas. Meanwhile, a total of 2,331 animals have been treated and 7,940 vaccinated in the state.
Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Bram Shanker Jimpa said more than 83 per cent of the water supply schemes of the villages affected by floods have been repaired. He said 368 water supply schemes of the south, north and central zones were affected due to floods and 308 schemes have been repaired so far.
