The Maharashtra government said last evening that it had released Rs 154 crore to district collectors for disbursal of aid to flood-affected people in western Maharashtra and elsewhere. Maharashtra Chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said flood-affected families will get Rs 10,000 each in rural areas and Rs 15,000 in urban areas.
Maharashtra received 782 mm of rain between June to August, 109 per cent of the average rainfall in this period. Meanwhile, rescue measures are in progress in rural as well as urban areas of the western Maharashtra district including the worst affected Sangli and Kolhapur.
AIR Correspondent reports that the situation in flood-hit Kolhapur and Sangli districts in western Maharashtra continues to be a cause of concern with the Panchaganga and Krishna rivers showing a marginal reduction in water levels. NH4, which connects Mumbai and Bengaluru via Kolhapur, remained shut for the fourth consecutive day yesterday. Nearly 2.85 lakh people have been evacuated in western Maharashtra so far.
Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta said adequate stocks of medicines have been rushed to Sangli and Kolhapur districts to deal with leptospirosis cases. He said seventy medical teams are working in the flood- affected areas while forty teams are working to restore electricity supply. He said according to preliminary estimates, crops over one lakh hectares have been lost. Meanwhile, NCP MLAs and MPs from the state have decided to donate one month’s salary for flood relief in the state while the state gazette officers have pledged their one day salaries towards relief and rehabilitation of the flood-hit areas.
