At least 30 people have been killed after floods affect parts of Maharashtra in the past one week even as more than 2.03 lakh people were evacuated to safer locations, officials said on Friday.
According to Konkan Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaiskar, 12 people died in Sangli, four in Kolhapur, seven in Satara, six in Pune and one in Solapur in separate incidents. At least four to five people are still missing from the boat tragedy in Brahmnal village in Sangli where a Gram Panchayat’s overloaded rescue boat capsized, drowning 12 persons.
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Special Inspector General (Law & Order) of Maharashtra Police, Milind Bharambe said that it was a rescue boat of locals who were trying to shift people from flooded areas to safer places.
With overnight rains subsiding, the waters have started receding in some parts of the worst-hit areas, giving relief to residents and rescuers, though the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert in Pune, Sangli, and Kolhapur for heavy rains over the next couple of days.
On Thursday night, 12 Indian Navy teams left for Sangli by road and are expected to reach there later today to join the rescue efforts. After conducting an aerial survey yesterday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that an estimated 29,000 people still remain marooned in flood waters in these districts. Five teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been airlifted from Punjab for rescue operations in Maharashtra.
The floods have had their fallout in urban centres like Mumbai, Thane, Pune and other cities which are now witnessing shortage of milk, fruits and vegetables. The prices of daily use items like ginger has shot to more than Rs325 per kg, coriander for nearly Rs400/bunch, tomatoes between Rs 70 to 100/kg and chillies for Rs300/kg.
Urban centres like Mumbai and Thane (city) are completely dependent on all their supplies from the adjoining districts of Thane, Palghar, Nashik for vegetables and Ahmednagar, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur for its supplies of fresh fruits and milk.
However, the flow of these items to Mumbai have been erratic in view of the floods, blocks on state and national highways, many interior areas cut-off, creating problems for transporters and the urban consumers alike. Presently, alternative arrangements are being made for milk from Gujarat and vegetable supplies are being augmented from Palghar, Thane and surrounding areas.
The India Meteorological Department has predicted more rainfall over parts Konkan region and Madhya Maharashtra during the next two days, which is expected to reduce thereafter.
