Flood-like situation in 17 UP districts, thousands of families displaced

The constant rainfall for the past two days has led to major rivers like Ganga and Yamuna constantly flowing above their danger mark. Schools in most of these districts, including Lucknow, were closed.

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said the state received 4 per cent excess rainfall.

“Thunderstorm accompanied by lightning and heavy to very heavy rain are very likely at isolated places in the state,” the IMD said on Monday.

In the 24 hours till late Sunday night, the state witnessed 14.2 mm rainfall against the average normal of 7.2mm.

At least 24 districts in the state have recorded excess rainfall. Some of the districts like Chitrakoot, Pratapgrah, Varanasi and Bhadohi reported over 55mm rainfall.

The state capital Lucknow received 18mm rain against the normal 8.6mm.

With districts like Prayagraj, which are witnessing the water level in Ganga and Yamuna rise above the danger mark, there are reports of water flooding the residential areas.

The 17 affected districts include Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Lakhimpur Kheri, Agra, Auraiya, Chitrakoot, Ballia, Banda, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Chandauli, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Etawah, and Fatehpur.

Officials said more than 350 houses were damaged due to flood water, while the affected population has crossed over 1 lakh mark.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath formed a special team of ministers, referred as “Team 11”, which were assigned districts for flood management and relief work.

Most of these ministers have reached their districts assigned to them, it is learnt.

These ministers include Nanda Gopal Gupta; Swatantra Dev Singh, Sanjay Gangwar, Pratibha Shukla, Ramkesh Nishad, Jaiveer Singh, Suresh Khanna, Sanjay Nishad, Dharamveer Prajapati, Ajit Pal, and Daya Shankar.

From August 2 to August 3, two people died because of drowning, one due to a storm and two due to heavy rain, officials said.