Minister of State for Home and Guardian Minister of Kolhapur Satej Patil has said that additional teams of Army and NDRF have reached Kolhapur and the rescue operation is in full swing.
He said that though water level in the district has started receding, it will take 2 to 3 days for the situation to come to normal, adding that the situation is already better than yesterday. He assured that the administration is taking every step to ensure the safety of the people.
“The water level at Rajaram bund on Panchaganga river has receded to 55ft today from 56.3 ft yesterday. The discharge of the water from Almatti dam in Karnataka has been substantially increased. This had helped in improvement in the flooding situation. We are taking every step to rescue people stranded due to the flooding in Kolhapur,” he said.
The minister said that upon his request, the Centre has “allocated four more teams of NDRF for Kolhapur", taking the number of NDRF teams deployed in the district to seven. "Three of them landed here in two aircraft on Saturday. Some of the NDRF deployments will be diverted to Sangli as well. As per our request, one unit of Army has already been deployed and it has been stationed at Shirol, where the rainfall is expected to affect more,” he said.
Patil thanked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar for the timely help for Kolhapur.
Patil has been stationed in the district from the day the heavy rainfall started lashing Kolhapur and other parts of the state. He has been holding meetings with the officials and coordinating at the district, state and national levels for effective operations. The district has witnessed heavy rainfall and flooding for three days, and over 42,000 people have been evacuated so far.