Duststorm hits capital, floods wreak havoc in Assam, Tripura

New Delhi, June 16 (UNI) Floods wreaked havoc in Assam and Tripura as a duststorm and brief showers lashed the national capital today, bringing down the mercury.

The overall flood situation in Asom remained grim, with the Brahmaputra still flowing above the danger mark at Dibrugarh and Neamatighat, the Kopili at Kampur, the Puthimari at Kamrup and the Barak at Cachar, official sources said.

Both roads and rail links in the area continue to remain cut off for the fourth day today.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, a duststorm lowered the temperature to 32 degrees C. A ferocious accompanying squall also led to trees being uprooted in several areas, resulting in several traffic snags.

The weatherman has forecast a partly cloudy sky and further duststorms and thunderstorms accompanied by squalls during the next 24 hours.

Tripura remained cut off from the rest of the country by rail and road for the fifth day today following rain-fed floods and landslips near Dharmanagar in North district, triggering widespread panic about a shortage of essentials.

Food and Civil Supply Minister Gopal Das said the situation had become more critical with the washout of a bridge at Sonarpur in Meghalaya and landslides in another 20 spots on National Highway No 44 in the neighbouring states of Assam and Meghalaya.

The southwest monsoon, on the other hand, has been active in Meghalaya, while heat wave conditions prevailed at isolated places in Vidarbha and Chattisgarh.

In the regions where the southwest monsoon is yet to set in, day temperatures were appreciably above normal in Madhya Pradesh and were above normal in east Uttar Pradesh and north Madhya Maharashtra. They were below normal in some parts of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Heavy rains are likely to occur at most places in coastal Karnataka and Kerala and Lakshadweep and at many places in south Konkan and Goa.

Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at many places in Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and at a few places in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, and at isolated places in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The weather continued to remain uncomfortable for residents of Kolkata with maximum relative humidity at around 95 per cent and the minimum humidity at 61 per cent.

There was no trace of rainfall today.

In Himachal Pradesh, higher altitude areas of Chamba, Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnuar experienced snowfall for the second day today, while isolated showers lashed the lower areas, plummeting maximum and minimum temperatures in the state during the last 24 hrs.

The famous tourist resort of Manali in Kullu district also reported intermittent rainfall, while Shimla and its adjoining areas recorded 32.1 mm of rain, with Sundernagar in Mandi district recording 11.8 mm of rain during the last 24 hrs.

The maximum and minimum temperatures of Shimla further dropped to 20.1 and 13 degrees from 22.2 and 14.6 degrees recorded yesterday.

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