An extremely heavy rainfall over Himachal, Uttarakhand and adjoining areas of Punjab, Haryana and several other parts of the country for the last few days, has made things worse for thousands of the people. Similarly, a light to moderate and fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is very likely over Western Himalayan region, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and a few other states during July 10 and next 5 days. In the meantime, IMD has issued a red alert for Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and yellow alert for Delhi. Several parts of the country are experiencing flash floods, and IMD has also issued alerts for flash floods and landslides for a few parts of the country.
Due to the persistent rain in the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered that all schools in Delhi stay closed on Monday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Delhi received 153 mm of rain in the 24-hour period ending at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, the most in a single day in July since 1982. A combination of a Western Disturbance and monsoonal winds is causing an intense rainstorm throughout northwest India including Delhi, which received the season's first “very heavy” rainfall on Saturday.
Meanwhile, union Home Minister Amit Shah met with the lieutenant governors of Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday and inquired about the situation in the union territories in the aftermath of the torrential rains. Shah also received an update from Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha on the Amarnath pilgrimage, which had been halted owing to severe rains.
“In light of the continuous rains in the capital, the union home minister spoke with LG Delhi V K Saxena and received updates.” “The home minister also spoke with the LG of Jammu and Kashmir and received updates on the Amarnath pilgrimage, which was halted due to heavy rains,” a source said, reported Hindusthan Samachar.
The Amarnath pilgrimage began on Sunday from the Panjtarni and Sheshnag base camps, authorities said, after being halted for three days owing to adverse weather in Kashmir. Authorities reported that as soon as the skies cleared above the cave shrine, they opened the gates and allowed the trapped worshippers to pray at the naturally created ice-lingam in the south Kashmir Himalayas.
The situation in Mohali appears to be worse, as the state administration has requested Army assistance in dealing with floods in the area. Punjab's home secretary has requested that the Army be sent to offer rescue and relief measures during the flood in SAS Nagar in a correspondence addressed today to Advisor, Civil Military Affairs, GOC-in-C Secretariat, Western Command, Chandimandir.
The government replied quickly on a plea from Mohali Deputy Commissioner Aashika Jain, who informed the government that there is an assessment of a serious flooding scenario owing to heavy rainfall over the previous three days. There is also a weather forecast for constant rains this week, and water has begun to penetrate both urban and rural homes.
“In light of the current situation of incessant rainfall and severe flooding, you are requested to provide a sufficient number of Army internal security columns to mitigate the situation,” stated Mohali DC. “We have already mobilized all resources available within our district and six NDRF teams have been requisitioned to provide assistance to affected individuals,” she added, emphasizing the urgency of the issue. Because the district administration is already diligently monitoring the ground situation, internal security columns of the army may be requisitioned if necessary. “Furthermore, nodal officers of Western Command may be alerted to reduce response time as and when required so that the district administration's efforts can be strengthened,” she said.
