Heavy rains triggered by a deep depression along the Orissa coast has left three persons dead and 18 reported missing while President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s official visit to Berhampur has been cancelled due to the inclement weather. Kalam was to attend the platinum jubilee celebration of the City High School and the silver jubilee celebration of a pharmacy college at Berhampur.The President had arrived here last night on a three-day visit to the state and was staying at the Raj Bhavan. He was to fly to Berhampur by an MI-8 helicopter but the departure was delayed as incessant rains continued to lash coastal Orissa and a proposal that he should travel by road was dropped. The visit was finally cancelled today.Kalam is scheduled to fly to the Wheeler Island tomorrow morning on a visit to the integrated test range set up there to test-fire missiles developed by the DRDO, including the long-range ‘Agni’. He is slated to return to Delhi tomorrow afternoon. Six fishermen were reported missing in the Paradip coast after four fishing trawlers capsized in rough weather. Fifty-eight others, who were in trawlers, managed to swim ashore.While two of the vessels sank near the fishing harbour, two others went down off the Jatadhari Mouth, sources said.Several places were lashed by heavy rains while the Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers swelled and inundated large areas in Rayagada and Gajapati districts of southern Orissa.A landslide at Jangiripalli village under Guma block of Rayagada district killed at least two persons while four others were reported missing.They belonged to two families and were asleep when a mound of earth buried their huts. A villager and his wife died while their two children and another couple are still missing.Fire brigade personnel from Parlakhemundi had rushed to the village for rescue work, the sources said.In neighbouring Rayagada district, a 10-year-old boy was swept away by flood waters at Sanyasipur village under Padmapur block.ChhATTISGARH: Heavy rains continued to lash the state for the second day on Monday as authorities put all 16 districts on high alert. The depression has crossed the Orissa coast because of which there could be heavy rainfall in the state in the next 48 hours, state relief commissioner Dr Alok Shukla said. Kanker received the highest rainfall of 250 mm by 8 am on Monday followed by Keshkal (230 mm), Nagri (196 mm), Kondagaon (178 mm), Patan of Durg district (117 mm) and Dhamtari district headquarters (103 mm), the meteorological sources said.
