CRY FOR SUCCOUR: Flood-affected people awaiting airdrop of relief at a village in Kheda district of Gujarat on Saturday. — Photo: PTI

GANDHINAGAR: With the flood situation showing considerable improvement in central Gujarat since Saturday, the attention is now diverted towards relief work and prevention of possible outbreak of epidemics in the hitherto waterlogged areas.

However, Bulsar, Navsari, Surat and Dangs districts in south Gujarat, Mehsana and Sabarkantha districts in north Gujarat and Surendranagar and Amreli districts in the Saurashtra region continued to receive heavy rainfall (between 100 mm and 200 mm) since Saturday night. Though the water level receded in some parts of Vadodara city and some of the main thoroughfares reopened for traffic, Padra and Karjan towns in the district continued to remain under water. So did most parts of Anand and Kaira districts in central Gujarat.

Major rivers in south Gujarat, including Ambica and Purna, are overflowing again. Many dams and check-dams in the north Gujarat and the Saurashtra regions have crossed the danger level. Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel said high alert had been sounded in the downstream of 51 dams while in 13 others, the people had been asked to remain prepared for evacuation. With eight more deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll in the State has reached 132.

While 43,000 people had to be evacuated in Broach district and another about 800 in Surendranagar, Mr. Patel said no evacuation work was taken up in most other districts where attention had been focused on rescue and relief.

With the local weather office issuing another heavy to very heavy rainfall warning all over the State in the next 48 hours, the relief and rescue operations have been further intensified to take advantage of the little respite on Sunday. Chief Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation and instructed the officials to take spot decisions.

The State Government also made a special sanction of Rs. 260 crores for the purpose and placed it under the disposal of the district collectors. Mr. Patel said 10 helicopters of the Indian Air Force and 56 mechanised and non-mechanised boats had been pressed into service. In addition, at the suggestion of Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, who returned to Delhi after a two-day visit of the affected areas in the State on Saturday, the Centre had dispatched 10 more helicopters and two battalions of paramilitary forces for rescue and relief operations.

Medical personnel sent

To take preventive steps against outbreak of epidemics, the Centre had sent 500 medical personnel to the state. In addition, the State Government had deployed 573 medical teams with 202 medical officers and 1,310 paramedical staff in the 18 flood-affected districts. Steps were also being taken for chlorination of the drinking water sources besides educating the people how to avoid water-borne diseases.

Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma, accompanied by Union Textile Minister Shankarsinh Waghela, and Minister of State for Railways Naran Rathwa, took an aerial survey of the affected areas of Ahmedabad and Vadodara.

As many parts of central and south Gujarat regions continued to remain under water, the Government had declared closure of all schools and colleges in these regions for two more days from tomorrow while in the other parts of the State, it had been left to the discretionary powers of the collectors.

While the rail links between Ahmedabad and Mumbai remained dislocated between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the highways between Ahmedabad and Vadodara were partly opened on Sunday for emergency services to carry relief materials. In the rest of the State, only 453 of the 1,300-odd roads affected by floods could be restored for traffic so far, Mr. Patel said. Besides a large number of villages, Kaira, Anand, Matar and Chaklasi towns have still remained without power.

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