New Delhi:
The death toll due to floods in Gujarat has risen to 218 this monsoon including 61 killed in Banaskantha district, an official of the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said on Monday. “218 people have died, with 61 in Banaskantha and seven in neighbouring Patan district,” the official said.
In the last two days, the toll increased after more bodies were found as flood waters receded in Patan and Banaskantha districts of north Gujarat, he added.
4.5 lakh people in the state have been affected due to floods and over 39,000 people shifted to safer places. Talking about rescue operations, approximately 11,400 people were rescued last week by the teams of Air Force, Army and National & State Disaster Response Forces.
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The official said that most of the people who were relocated have now returned to their villages. The administration was now focused on providing them food and preventing outbreak of water-borne diseases, he added.
Relief operation has been intensified as the rains have abated. For the last four days, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is camping in the Banaskantha-Patan area of the state.
In Banaskantha, villages along Banas and Sipu were inundated. In one village, floods claimed the lives of 14 members of a family, officials said. The situation became serious as a huge volume of water was released from Dantiwada and Sipu dams following rains in other parts of the region and neighbouring Rajasthan.
Rupani on Monday visited the affected villages in Patan district. He plans to stay in the area for three more days, an official said. Normalcy will be restored in another ten days, he assured the people. In Patan, he said, 58 out of the 87 damaged roads have been restored, and 153 medical camps set up.
(With PTI inputs)
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