Bhopal: Five persons, including a two-year-old girl, have died in Madhya Pradesh in the last 24 hours as very heavy rainfall crippled normal life in several parts of the state.
A car carrying five employees of a private automobile dealer from Bhopal to Sehore was washed away in an overflowing nullah on Monday morning. The employees were heading for a meeting when their car lost control and fell into a nullah at Jatakhedi village in Sehore on Indore-Bhopal highway. The rescuers managed to fish out the car and four bodies from the nullah while the fifth person was untraceable till last reports came in.
Earlier in the day, a two-year-old girl, identified as Anushka Sen, fell into a drain near her house in Bhopal’s Fanda area. “She was found caught in a net in the drain and was declared dead by hospital authorities,” a local said.
All government and private schools in Bhopal, Raisen, Vidisha, Dewas, Jabalpur, Sehore and Balaghat districts remained closed on Monday due to the heavy rains. Several low-lying areas are facing a flood-like situation as rain water has gushed into households and commercial establishments in the localities. Public Relations Minister PC Sharma visited some of these areas to assess the damage and oversee rescue operations.
Bhopal, which witnessed a dry spell in July, has received 140cm of rainfall since August and it is expected that the city could touch the record rainfall (160cm) of 2006. As the overflowing Narmada river breached its banks at Maheshwar, some deities along the banks were also partially submerged on Monday. The river is flowing above the danger mark at several places after additional water was released from the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dams The district administration has issued an advisory to affected villagers.
The Narmada started flowing above the danger mark at Motakka bridge on Indore-Ichhapur highway on Sunday night and the administration barred movement of heavy vehicles from the bridge as a precautionary measure. Eighteen gates of both the Omkareshwar dam and Bargi dam in Jabalpur are constantly releasing water.
At Harda, the central jail had rainwater gushing inside and the administration was making efforts to shift prisoners elsewhere. Sehore and Raisen are also facing flood-like situation. The state has received 18% plus rainfall this season and the Met office has predicted more rainfall in the next three days. Other districts, including Raisen, Sagar, Hoshangabad and Narsinghpur have also witnessed heavy downpour. Several villages are also flooded in Balaghat where the Vainganga river is flowing above danger mark.
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