Flood situation remains grim in North Karnataka, over 35,000 people evacuated
Bengaluru: Many villages are still submerged in Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Yadgir and Raichur districts of North Karnataka and over 35,000 people have been evacuated, as the flood situation remains grim with the Bhima river continuing to flow above the danger mark, officials said on Monday.
According to the Central water commission, the Bhima river has been in spate since October 14 due to torrential rain in Maharashtra and release of water from the dams there.
The river, which is a tributary of the Krishna, has wreaked havoc in Kalaburagi, Vijayapura,Yadgir and Raichur, which are experiencing intermittent heavy rain.
Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) officials said as many as 97 villages in the four districts are worst affected and people residing there have been shifted to safety.
"So far we have evacuated 36,290 people. We have opened 174 relief camps where 28,007 people are staying," a KSNDMC official said.
The Army and the disaster response force personnel are engaged in evacuating people from the flood hit areas, according to sources. Meanwhile, in Bengaluru the heavy downpour since Sunday night resulted in waterlogging in some places.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the city recorded 39.6 mm rainfall at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited based weather observatory in the 24 hour period ending 0830 am today.
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Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak booked in Punjab
Chandigarh (PTI): Punjab Police is learnt to have booked Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who recently defected to the BJP, sources said on Saturday.
Two FIRs have been lodged against Pathak under non-bailable sections, they said.
No further details about the FIRs have been disclosed yet.
Pathak was among the seven Rajya Sabha MPs who had quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the BJP.
On April 24, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs -- Pathak, Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal -- quit, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
Six of the seven MPs were from Punjab.
Later, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted their merger with the BJP, reducing AAP's strength in the Upper House to three.
