Rains leave 80 villages in Gujarat affected by floods

New Delhi, Sep 8 (UNI) Rains in Gujarat have left 80 villages of Anand and Kheda districts affected by floods triggered by Kadana dam water release. About eight thousand people were evacuated in these two districts yesterday including Palla village, and villages under Matar, Kheda taluka, Kapadwanj as well as several others near Tarapur.

Several places in Barmer district of Rajasthan received heavy rainfall with Chauhatan in Barmer and Mount Abu receiving 140 mm rainfall in the past 24 hours.

However, rains have receded in Kota and Udaipur divisions but around 200 water bodies in the region are overflowing and water is being discharged from many big dams.

In a shock triggered by the floods in Jaisalmer, around a dozen wells - almost 100 years old - have reappeared following heavy rains.

These wells had become buried under sand dunes for the past so many years. The sand was washed away following the rains.

The North-Western Railways has incurred losses running into crores due to the recent floods in Barmer district.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad expressed concern over the drinking water crisis following damage caused to the filtration plants. He has directed engineers to make bore-wells functional to effectively meet the shortfall of 20 lakh gallons of water.

It was a sunny day in Delhi today with bright sunlight and high humidity leading to a return to sultry weather conditions in the capital.

Light rainfall occurred in north-eastern and central Madhya Pradesh overnight, while the rest of the state experienced dry weather.

In the east, a few spells of rain is likely to occur in gangetic West Bengal after last few days' sultry weather.

Monsoon turned weak in north-west India as rains eluded Punjab and Haryana during the past 24 hours. Amritsar in Punjab and Kalka in Haryana, experienced no rains with moderate downpour registering 7 mm till this morning. The rainfall activity also diminished in Himachal Pradesh with Pandoh in Mandi district as the wettest place in the state. Kasol, Barthin, Suni, Solang Nullah and Sundernagar areas also had rainfall. The capital town of Shimla, experiencing foggy weather, had trace rainfall.

Chandigarh and its adjoining areas were lashed by sharp showers this evening after an overcast sky during the day. The maximum humidity touched 90 per cent and the minimum 55 per cent in the city which recorded trace rainfall overnight.

The southwest monsoon has been active in Assam, Meghalaya and Gujarat and has been subdued over Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, east Madhya Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Heavy rains are likely to occur at many places in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

UNI Team SY RP HS1924