Bhopal, Aug 23 : As several areas received heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours and a flood-like situation emerged, the Madhya Pradesh government sought the Indian Air Force’s help to rescue people and undertake disaster relief operations.
In response, the Nagpur unit of IAF has deployed two medium lift Helicopters — MI17 V5 to rescue people and those needing immediate evacuation. “IAF to deploy two Medium Lift Helicopters Mi17 V5A at Vidisha, Based on request from MP Govt for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations,” sources in the IAF told IANS on Tuesday.
All major rivers and dams in Madhya Pradesh were reportedly overflowing after excessive rain, threatening to flood several areas, which has brought the authorities on their toes for the last 24 hours.
According to the official reports, over 400 people were rescued and shifted to safer places. Many districts, such as Bhopal, Vidisha, Jabalpur, Guna, Raisen, Damoh, Sagar, Narsinghpur and others have recorded above 100 mm rain in the last 24 hours.
The National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Relief Forces (SDRF) along with the local police have been deployed. With the heavy rain and speedy wind flow, several trees and electrical polls were uprooted due to which power supply in many areas, including Bhopal city, was cut for more than 15 hours on Monday.
The Meteorological Department has also issued a red alert warning of extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in the districts of Ujjain, Indore divisions and Rajgarh district till Tuesday. In Anuppur, the road of village Tulra-Sarai-Karpa access road of Pushprajgarh collapsed about 20 meters. The NHAI road connecting Shahdol-Pushparajgarh was closed due to landslides. This route connects with Chhattisgarh.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reviewed the situation in the rain-affected districts again on Tuesday morning and directed the district administration and the police to speed up their rescue operations in the flooded areas and ensure that people are shifted to safer places.
With a warning of another spell of heavy rain in Bhopal, Vidisha, Jabalpur, Raisen, Narmadapuram and Vidisha, etc., the chief minister said that rivers such as — Chambal, Betwa, Narmada, Parvati and Sindh — were flowing high and alert has been issued in the catchment areas. (IANS)
