Rain pounds Marathwada

Marathwada region, which was suffering from back-to-back drought for four years, received heavy rain, with the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon. In the last 48 hours, at least six people have died across Maharashtra in rain-related incidents.

Because of the heavy rain on Saturday, the road traffic from Maharashtra to the neighbouring states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Goa slowed down. For the second consecutive day, road and rail traffic between Mumbai and Goa was slow because of mudslides and overflowing of water from the bridges.

On Saturday, rivers, stream, nullahs and dams were overflowing in the  worst-affected districts of Latur, Osmanabad and Beed, which saw the worst drought in a century’s time. In fact, from April 11 to August 1, the Railways ran the Jaldoot water train that undertook 111 trips to supply drinking water to Latur.

In Nanded, the Godavari river was overflowing at some places after four years. Between the monsoon of 2015 and 2016, more than 1,000 farmers committed suicide in the Marathwada region because of the agrarian crisis.

Reports said that the district was pounded by rain in the last three days. On Saturday, it received over 120 mm rainfall. Several villages were inundated and cut off from the main roads because of the overflowing water bodies. A team of the NDRF had been kept on standby in case evacuation is required.

“Retreating monsoon brought much-needed rain to Marathwada,” tweeted Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde, who is also the Guardian Minister of Beed.