Date:18/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081858760300.htm

New Delhi

60 people trapped in flood waters

Staff Reporter

Water level in the Yamuna rises to 205.55 metres

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

IN SEARCH OF DRY LAND: Villagers of Usmanpur moving to safer places after the Yamuna waters entered their village on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: On a day when the Capital received 18.2 mm of rainfall, the water level in the Yamuna rose to 205.55 metres after having crossed the danger mark on Saturday when it reached 205.43 metres. The river on Sunday was flowing 0.72 metres above the danger mark of 204.83 metres.

According to reports, over 60 people were trapped in flood waters after their jhuggis were inundated at Usmanpur in East Delhi. Even though alerts have been sounded in areas such as New Usmanpur, Poonia Vihar and Burari and the evacuation process has been set in motion, the Government denied that there was any panic among the residents.

Delhi Urban Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said: “We are fully prepared to tackle any possibility of floods and we haven’t faced any problem so far. However, the only area where we had a problem was Usmanpur when the slum dwellers ignored our prior warnings to clear away from the site when the water level had touched the danger mark. Now we have evacuated them to safer places after they asked us for boats.”

“As a precaution we are also releasing more than 50,000 cusecs of water from the Wazirabad barrage to the Okhla barrage as well the ITO barrage in a slow and phased manner to provide outflow. Also, control rooms have been set up at strategic places to keep a round-the-clock vigil on the water flow,” he added.

Safeguards

According to Mr. Chauhan, other safeguards taken by the government include stationing of lifeguards, fire station officers and arrangement of 67 boats and 4,000 sandbags at nearby sites. “The main reason for the rise in the water level is the water released from Haryana because of heavy rain in North India,” he added.