The Hindu : Heavy rain claims 15 lives in Gujarat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 25, 2003

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Heavy rain claims 15 lives in Gujarat

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD AUG. 24. Fifteen persons were killed in a house-collapse and electrocution in various parts of Gujarat today as heavy rain continued to lash the city and most other parts of the State since last night.

According to official sources, Ahmedabad and the capital city of Gandhinagar received more than 300 mm of rainfall today inundating the low-lying areas. More than 10,000 people in about 100 housing societies in the eastern parts of the city were badly affected as the Kharicut canal passing through the area breached and water entered the housing colonies.

The worst-affected were Viratnagar and Jashodanagar societies where residents of ground-floor apartments had to move up and in some places take shelter on the terraces under heavy rain. Most of the societies were under four to five feet of water.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation pressed four boats into service to shift the affected people and supply food packets. Several voluntary organisations came to the aid of the civic and Government authorities to provide relief.

Sargasan village in Gandhinagar district virtually became an island with more than four feet of water surrounding it. A number of houses collapsed in Moti Agnej village near the State capital but there was no casualty.

One person was killed when an old house collapsed in Mandvi-ni-pole in old Ahmedabad. Some houses collapsed in Raikhad locality too but no one was hurt. Kaira and Anand districts accounted for three casualties each, while two each were killed in Vadodara and Ahmedabad districts.

Dahod, the Panchamahals, Sabarkantha, Amreli and Junagadh districts recorded one casualty each, mostly due to house collapse.

According to the Vadodara district collector, Bhagyesh Jha, people in the residential areas along the Vishwamitri river, that passes through the middle of the city, have been alerted as the authorities might be forced to open the gates of the Ajwa lake which has started overflowing.

More than 100 of the 185 odd major and medium dams in the State are already either full or overflowing, the official sources said.

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