North Karnataka has been badly hit by heavy rain and flood. According to reports, more than 200 personnel of the Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services are on the boats rescuing the trapped residents in Belagavi, Raichur, Bagalkot and Yadgir districts. With the monsoon picking up speed in the last couple of days, the flood situation has become worse with the Krishna river swelling and overflowing into villages.
The rescue operations are being conducted aggressively with involvement from teams of police, private agencies and NDRF in the evacuation of the people.
Release Of Water From Maharashtra Dam Causing Trouble
The trouble of flood has been further aggravated by the release of water from neighboring Maharastra state’s dam. The Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yediyurappa has already written to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saying, “It has been observed that the state of Maharashtra has been releasing a huge amount of floodwater from the Koyna reservoir into the Krishna river and its tributaries in the last few days. The outflow has gone from 20,000 cusecs to 1.25 lakh cusecs in the span of just two days.”
The letter further says, “Due to the heavy discharge from the Maharashtra reservoir, the North Karnataka districts of Belagavi, Vijaypura, Raichur, Kalburgi, Yadgir are severely affected by the flood discharge… It is hereby requested… to regulate the flood discharge from the reservoirs of Maharashtra.”
CM Yediyurappa Makes Aerial Survey
The State Disaster Response Force is also contributing towards the rescue operations in the flood-affected areas. Traffic had to be stopped and trains and buses were disrupted in parts of NH-4 that were heavily flooded. The Karnataka CM made an aerial survey of the flood-affected area on Monday.
The CM was scheduled to visit Athani but since it is now underwater Yediyurappa decided to go back to Bengaluru immediately after his aerial survey of Vijaypura and Raichur districts.
In between his survey, the CM held meetings with the officials from these two districts to get an update on the entire situation.
