UP death toll rises to 103, rains provide relief in Punjab

New Delhi, July 21 (UNI) Eighteen more monsoon-related deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the toll to 103 in Uttar Pradesh even as rains in parts of Punjab and Jammu regions provided respite from hot and humid weather conditions.

Twelve people, including four children died, and three others severely injured when their houses collapsed in Varanasi, Chandauli, Banda and Pratapgarh districts and six people were killed as lightning struck them in Sant Ravidas Nagar and Jhansi districts.

Central Water Commission (CWC) said all prominent rivers including Ghagra, Sai, Gomti and Rapti were rising along their course, but are still below the red mark.

Allahabad received maximum rainfall at eight cm, followed by Mathura at seven, Chillaghat six, Rae Bareli and Jaunpur four each and Varanasi three cm.

Certain areas in Punjab and Jammu region were lashed by rains providing respite from hot and humid weather conditions.

Many areas of Himachal Pradesh, including lower and mid hills, since last night, also experienced showers bringing a considerable fall in the temperature and triggering fresh landslides in Kullu district and upper areas of Shimla district.

Parts of Jammu region and the national capital region of Delhi also experienced monsoon showers. Bhasoli in Jammu region recorded three mm rain.

Hot and humid weather conditions returned to the national capital. Delhi experienced a maximum temperature to 36 Degrees Celsius, four degrees more than yesterday.

The rise in mercury, coupled with a rise in humidity levels to 77 per cent, led to sultry weather in the capital.

In the southern part of the country, Andhra Pradesh has been experiencing scanty monsoon showers abd Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has announced that the State Government would take up cloud seeding programme from August.

The Southwest monsoon was weak over Kerala as well with rainfall at a few places in the state and Lakshadweep.

With heavy inflow being recorded in the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) reservoir across river Cauvery near Mysore following incessant rainfall in the catchment areas, authorities have increased the discharge from the dam to 39,378 cusecs.

The discharge was expected to increase in the days to come and Life in Kolkata is limping back to normal as the metropolis awoke to a light drizzle this morning, after the continuous downpour for the last few days.

The major respite to the people was the fall in temperature that hovered between 24 degree Celsius to 29 degree Celsius.

Heavy rains are likely to occur at most places in Gangetic West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, east Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Konkan, Goa, coastal Karnataka and Kerala.

Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at most places in west Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, at many places in Bihar, east Rajasthan, Gujrat, Madhya Maharashtra and Sikkim.

Very light rains had occurred at isolated places in Haryana, Saurashtra, Kutch, Marathwada and Rayalseema.

UNI TEAM AK RP VV1922