Ajit Pawar holds emergency meeting over rain situation in Maharashtra

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday held a meeting of all the district collectors and the divisional commissioners of the state to review the heavy rains in the state and instructed the administration to be alert to carry out relief and rehabilitation work on war footing. He instructed the officials to remove the encroachment that blocks the natural flow of rivers and streams and causes flooding. Pawar also said,in order to avoid landslide incidents, the administration should collect information about landslide prone villages by carrying out the surveys and to shift the villagers to safer places.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has extended its ‘red alert’ in Mumbai till 8:30am on Friday considering the continuous widespread rainfall across the city. The initial warning was issued on Wednesday. The city is likely to get ‘extremely heavy’ rainfall in a few locations until Friday, although it was initially predicted that the intensity of rains will start reducing today. Officials said continuous showers should be expected over the next two days, and that a dry spell is not likely before the first week of August.South Mumbai received extremely heavy 24-hour precipitation till 8.30am. The Colaba weather station received 223.2mm, while Santacruz in the suburbs recorded 145.1mm. This is up significantly from 23mm and 29mm, respectively, a day before.Bandra recorded 106mm, Dahisar 70.5mm, Ram Mandir 161mm, Chembur 86.5mm, Byculla 119mm, CSMT 153.5mm, Matunga 78.5mm, and Sion saw 112mm of rain in that period.