Ahmedabad: Efforts were on Saturday to rescue around 150 people trapped in a village in central Gujarat that face a fresh threat of floods with the River Mahi waters rising alarmingly, even as Surat residents began coming out of their homes after remaining marooned for days.
According to Vadodara district collector Rajeev Topno, the local administration and the army were jointly trying to rescue villagers of Dabka in Dariabhatha area, about 30 km north of Vadodara city.
"We had advised the villagers Thursday but they refused to budge. We are now providing them live-jackets and other essential things. And now they want to be evacuated as the water level has increased alarmingly," Topno told IANS.
Dabka village was marooned Friday night when the outflow from Kadana and Vanakbori dams reached 1.3 million cusecs, flooding the Mahi river. This posed a danger to more than 600 villages of four districts - the Panchmahals, Vadodara, Kheda and Anand.
The inflow at Kadana dam on Mahi has reduced to 385,000 cusecs and the dam authorities have maintained the outflow at 593,000 cusecs.
According to Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel, the decrease in the outflow would immediately reflect in the decline of water level of Mahi river.
Around 30,000 people have been evacuated in about 200 villages in central Gujarat following the Mahi floods.
The state administration called in the Indian Army on Friday for rescue and relief operations in central Gujarat. More than 30,000 people have been evacuated in rural areas.
Meanwhile, in Surat the receding floodwaters have left mud on the walls of homes and other buildings in the south Gujarat city even as people were rushing Saturday morning towards the submerged areas of Adajan and Rander to see their relatives.
Former municipal commissioner of Surat, S R Rao, who successfully tackled the situation after a plague 13 years ago, has been given charge of administration there, instilling much hope among people.
People have begun coming out of their homes. They are complaining about not getting relief when they were left stranded during the floods.
"Helicopters used to drop food packets, but many of them fell in the water and we could not get hold of them," said Sabiha Sheikh.
According to official sources, 25 bodies have been recovered so far from Surat.
Authorities say that after the waters recede from Adajan and Rander, which are still reeling under floods, there may be more reports of deaths.
Following heavy rains in south Rajasthan and north Gujarat, the water level on Dharoi dam on the Sabarmati river reached above danger mark and 100,000 cusecs of water was released Friday night.
The released water from Dharoi caused a swamp in Sabarmati and an alert was sounded in the low-lying areas of Mehsana, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad districts.
Slum dwellers in the river belt in Ahmedabad were shifted to safer areas by the corporation authorities.
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