Himachal, hit by over 46pc excess rains, continues facing landslides, flash floods

Shimla, Sep 16 With Himachal Pradesh having seen over 46 per cent more than normal rainfall this time, it continued to bear the brunt of nature's fury on Tuesday with landslides, flash floods, and house and building collapses.

Against the normal rainfall of 692 mm it receives till mid-September, the state has already recorded 1,010 mm of rainfall. It’s much higher than the state normally receives in the entire monsoon, i.e. around 734 mm.

At least three deaths of a family were reported in Mandi district, while the state capital saw many landslips and cave-ins close to multi-storied housing complexes.

Deputy Commissioner of Mandi, Apoorv Devgan, said three bodies have been recovered while two have been rescued in a house collapse in Nihri village.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu reviewed the situation in flood-hit areas as the state continued rescue and relief operations in several other disaster-hit areas.

Mourning the deaths, he said: "The government stands in solidarity with aggrieved families in this hour of grief." He directed the Mandi administration to provide all possible assistance to the next of kin of the deceased.

The Chief Minister, in the high-level virtual meeting, took stock of the situation from the Deputy Commissioners of affected areas and directed them to take necessary and immediate actions to mitigate the impact. He emphasised the need to shift the people living in unsafe buildings to secure locations to avert any untoward incident and ensure their safety. He directed to restore the damaged roads and water supply schemes in the affected areas on priority so that people do not face any inconvenience.

He said essential commodities must also be made available in the affected areas. He also asked the administrative officers to provide timely help to the people in distress and support them.

Later, interacting with the media here, Sukhu said Central ministers were visiting affected areas merely to gain political mileage, but they should also announce relief packages from their respective ministries. He said BJP leaders should urge the Prime Minister to release a special financial package for the state at the earliest so that affected families could be provided financial assistance in time. He said the state government had received only Rs 400 crore out of Rs 1,500 crore for 2023.

Additionally, Rs 1,500 crore had also been announced by the Prime Minister for helping the affected families devastated by this year's torrential rains, but it still remains uncertain whether this amount is part of the special relief package or scheme-based assistance. He said the state government is providing relief to the affected families from its limited resources and restoring the damaged roads, irrigation and water supply schemes on a war footing to facilitate the people.

He said torrential rains had caused substantial losses in this monsoon compared to the disaster in 2023. He said about Rs 20,000 crore of damages were reported over the last three years due to various disasters.

The Chief Minister said this year's receding monsoon has caused widespread devastation across the state, leading to valuable loss of lives and vital infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, roads, as well as to private properties.

This is a clear indication of the adverse impacts of climate change, he added.

He said Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri visited disaster-affected areas of Dharampur in Mandi, where more than Rs 6 crore in damages have been sustained to the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) buses. Floodwaters inundated the bus stand in Dharampur, sweeping away several HRTC buses and damaging shops, houses and parked vehicles.

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