Chandigarh: With the floodwaters ebbing and the weather being clear for the past three days in several parts of Punjab and Haryana, different government agencies of the two states have stepped up their efforts to restore the power and drinking water supplies in their respective affected areas.
It may be recalled that many districts of Punjab and Haryana had been pounded by the torrential rains in the region and the subsequent flooding in several rivers, rivulets and drains last week, resulting in severe damage to the massive residential areas and farmlands across the region.
Combined Death toll
While the death toll in the two states was said to be 55 – as many as 29 in Punjab and remaining in Haryana - on Sunday, the number of people shifted from flood-hit areas to safer places in Punjab was said to be over 26,000 and over 5,400 in Haryana. According to information, at least 14 districts were badly hit by floodwaters in Punjab and 13 in Haryana.
Meanwhile, the health departments of the two states had also started holding camps to prevent the outbreak of rainy season diseases including malaria and cholera.
However, according to media reports reaching here, official agencies as well as social fora were still engaged in delivering various relief materials in the affected areas as well as efforts to plug the breaches in Ghaggar River which had inundated massive areas in Patiala, Mansa and Sangrur districts of Punjab.
Villagers shifted to safer places in camps
Meanwhile, according to media reports, heavy rains since Saturday night had inundated several villages in the Dasuya sub-division of the Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district following which the villagers of the affected areas had to be shifted to safer places in the district.
According to information, the affected villages included Ghogra, Haler, Sonspur, Sagran, Pawan, Bamial, Dhadhar, Behbowal, Jalalchak, mand and Pandher. The district officials, however, held there was no panic in the area.
In Haryana also, the water level in the Yamuna river which had affected most of the areas on its course, was said to be below the danger mark on Sunday, though it had caused waterlogging on its course in Fatehabad district.
Meanwhile, the Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains on Sunday said that all schools in the state, which were ordered closed till Sunday due to waterlogging and floodwaters, till early this week, would reopen from July 17.