Dams overflow in Rajasthan

With no heavy rain in the last 48 hours, Rajasthan seems to have weathered the worst monsoon rain, but the state continues to be affected by inundation and the threat of diseases.

Nearly 143 dams in the state out of 724 are overflowing, worsening the flood situation caused by last week’s heavy rains.

Four gates of the state’s biggest dam, Bisalpur, were opened on Tuesday releasing about 6,000 cusecs of water until Wednesday evening.

With a capacity of 315 metres, the dam supplies drinking water to five districts and is expected to cater to the area until 2016 given its present levels. The dam’s gates were last opened in 2006.

Local administration at Tonk and Sawai Madhpur has evacuated dozens of villages that face the threat of flooding due to the opening of the dam’s gates. The Kaithoon Dam in Chaksu also started overflowing on Tuesday, following which security personnel shifted people of seven villages to other places.

While the state remained largely dry, some places in Kota division, isolated places in Ajmer, Jaipur, Bharatpur, Udaipur and Bikaner witnessed light showers.

Only Jhalawar and Tonk districts witnessed heavy rains, while Asnawar in Jhalawar and Niwai in Tonk recorded 10cm and 9 cm rain respectively.

Three more deaths were reported in the state due to rains and floods. An eight-year-old girl died in Bhilwara district after a thatched roof collapsed during heavy rain at Swarooppura village. Her father and mother sustained severe injuries and were immediately rushed to hospital.

In another incident, two boys drowned in a ditch filled with rain water in Jaipur city.  The dead were identified as Rahul Sharma, 13, and Ravi Chauhan, 8, whose bodies have been handed over to their family members. Police said the duo were playing when they slipped into the deep rain-fed ditch and drowned. Meanwhile, Meteorology Department officials have predicted light to moderate rainfall in several parts of eastern Rajasthan and isolated places of western Rajasthan.

Patna

Amid all the talks of rainfall deficiency and drought-like situation in Bihar, heavy rain lashed the state capital and North Bihar districts on Wednesday, including Vaishali, Samastipur, Saran and Muzaffarpur.

With incessant downpour, most of the areas in Patna including Rajendra Nagar, Kadamkuan, Kankarbagh and Pataliputra Colony remained submerged. The school children and office-goers waded through ankle to knee deep water to reach their destination.

Bihar has experienced poor rainfall this year with 23 out of 38 districts facing a drought-like situation. But Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi maintained that he will wait till August 15 to assess if the state has been hit by drought, “as our experience shows that in August and September, the heavy rainfall usually offsets deficiencies of the previous months.”

The Met department said that Bihar has received 417.1 mm rainfall from June 15 to August 10, against the expected 585.8mm – a deficiency of nearly 29 per cent.