Punjab: Over 300 villages badly affected by floods

Several parts of Punjab have been badly affected by floods, damaging crops in thousands of acres and forcing thousands of villagers to spend nights on rooftops. Indian Air Force team was pressed into service to provide relief material like food and water to the flood-hit villages of Punjab.

Chandigarh: More than 300 villages, mainly in Punjab's Ropar, Jalandhar and Ferozepur districts, were badly affected in floods by the Satluj river.

Many houses in the villages have been destroyed, slum dwellers have become homeless and thousands of acres of cropland have been damaged.

Authorities on Wednesday deployed helicopters to airdrop food and water supplies to the villagers.

In Ropar, the district administration declared a holiday in all educational institutes till Thursday. The government has declared the current flood situation in the state as a natural calamity.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday told the Financial Commissioner to officially declare natural calamity in the villages as a unit in order to facilitate the affected people to claim insurance against the losses from various companies.

He also asked the Finance Department to immediately clear the pending relief funds to the tune of around Rs 100 crore for expeditious disbursement by the Revenue Department through the respective Deputy Commissioners.

An official with the state Drainage Department said the overall situation in the Beas and Ravi rivers was under control though danger continued to lurk in areas adjacent to the Satluj river and further downstream at Harike headworks in Ferozepur.

Meanwhile, food relief teams of the Indian Army under the Western Command were carrying out rescue operations in various areas of Punjab and Haryana.

Teams with 60-70 persons each have been deployed with the requisite equipment at Mirthal (Pathankot), Dinanagar (Gurdaspur), Phillaur, Nakodar, Shahkot in Jalandhar and near Karnal in Haryana, an official statement said.

"Three teams are currently engaged in flood rescue, 5-6 teams on standby, in Ludhiana. Since morning we have evacuated 40 people and 8 animals in Bholeval Kadim village. About 150 people in the village are waiting to be rescued," told one NDRF official.