Hyderabad receives fresh spell of rains; flood situation remains grim in K'taka
New Delhi: A fresh spell of overnight rains caused flooding in parts of Hyderabad on Sunday even as the flood situation remained grim in four districts of Karnataka, with the Krishna and Bhima rivers in spate.
The overnight incessant rains lashed Hyderabad days after the city witnessed one of the worst deluges following the heaviest downpour in over a century, police and civic officials said.
The latest rains since Saturday evening led to lakes and other water bodies overflowing and triggered flooding of several low-lying areas, including places affected last week in the city and on the outskirts, they said.
The Disaster Response Force personnel, the staff of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, and police swung into action on Saturday night itself, evacuating the marooned.
In a near repeat of the scenes witnessed last week, the basements of several apartment complexes were flooded by the rain waters and people were seen walking in knee-deep water in some areas.
A video showed some autorickshaws getting washed away in a flooded street.
In a rain-related incident, a five-year-old girl died in the early hours when a wall collapsed in Hyderabad's Mangalhat area, civic officials said.
The MeT office has forecast more rains in parts of Telangana till October 21.
Heavy rains wreaked havoc last week in parts of the state, including in Hyderabad, claiming over 50 lives.
The state capital bore the brunt as a depression dumped the heaviest rains (nearly 20 cm) for October since 1916 on Tuesday and triggered flash floods.
The rains abated since Wednesday with the flood water receding in most parts while the government, in a preliminary estimate, pegged the losses at over Rs 5,000 crore.
However, since Saturday night, several parts of Hyderabad and neighboring districts were again battered by torrential rains with Saroornagar in adjoining Ranga Reddy district recording the maximum of 16.9 cm.
The flood situation remained grim in four districts of Karnataka with the Krishna and Bhima rivers in spate as the Army, the national and state disaster response forces undertook rescue work, evacuating hundreds of marooned people, officials said.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said many villages in Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Yadgir, and Raichur districts were either completely or partially submerged due to the floods caused by heavy rains last week and he would undertake an aerial survey of the affected areas on October 21.
According to the Karnataka Disaster Management Authority (KDMA), a total of 20,269 people, including 15,078 in badly-hit Kalaburagi, have been evacuated so far by the personnel of the Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), besides the local police and district authorities.
There was no loss of human lives anywhere in the flood-affected areas, whereas two cattle died in Vijayapura, KDMA Commissioner Manoj Rajan said.
A total of 111 villages in the four districts have been affected by the floods, caused by heavy rains and water released by dams in neighboring Maharashtra.
Officials said the Bhima river continued to remain in spate in Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and Yadgir districts, while the surging Krishna river has affected villages in Raichur.
Bhima, the major tributary of the Krishna river, has been in spate for the last one week due to torrential rains in neighboring Maharashtra and in parts of Karnataka.
The river was flowing 4.45 metres above the danger level and 1.61 metres above its previous Highest Flood Level, the Central Water Commission said in its latest update.
According to the KDMA, as many as 55 villages across six taluks of Kalaburagi, thirteen villages in three taluks of Yadgir, and 26 villages of Vijayapura are badly affected by the floods.
The authority said it has also identified 157 villages in Kalaburagi, 45 in Yadgir, and 26 in Vijayapura as vulnerable.
Expressing solidarity with the flood-hit people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the state of the Centre's full cooperation.
This is the third time the southern state has been hit by floods in the last three months, following heavy monsoon rains.
Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said he will meet Prime Minister Modi to seek assistance for the farmers who have suffered losses due to heavy rains in Maharashtra.
The former Union minister visited Kankarbawadi and Sastur villages in Osmanabad district of the Marathwada region in the morning and interacted with farmers affected by the heavy rains that lashed parts of the state over the last few days.
Heavy rains and floods have claimed at least 48 lives in Maharashtra's Pune, Konkan and Aurangabad divisions while crops on lakhs of hectares have been damaged extensively.
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Trump returns from China; terms meeting with Xi as 'G-2'
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump returned from a visit to China, describing his discussions with President Xi Jinping as a meeting of leaders of "two great countries".
Trump landed at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on the outskirts of the US capital on Friday evening, claiming to have struck important trade deals, including one for China's purchase of 200 aircraft from Boeing, with a promise for another 750, as well as agreements benefiting the American agriculture sector.
The US President reached here after a brief refuelling stop at Anchorage in Alaska.
“It’s the two great countries. I call it the G-2. This is the G-2. I think it’ll go down as a very important moment in history,” Trump told Fox News in an interview after meeting Xi on Thursday.
The Washington Post reported that Trump’s remarks put China on an equal footing with the US, exactly what Xi had aimed to achieve with the visit.
“Over two days of meetings here, the carefully choreographed pageantry and the reciprocal gestures of friendship and respect between the world’s two most powerful men displayed a geopolitical dynamic that the Chinese have long craved and Americans had resisted," the Post said.
Trump told Fox News that the relationship with Xi was important and suggested that China may not resort to any aggressive moves over Taiwan, at least till he is in office.
“It’s not a takeover. They just don’t want to see this place — we’ll call it a place because nobody knows how to define it — but they don’t want to see it go independent,” Trump said.
“I don’t think they’ll do anything when I’m here. When I’m not here. I think they might, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
"I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down," he said.
"We're not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China's going to be OK with that," he added.
The US President said he had invited Xi for a visit to Washington in September.
“Xi has done something Chinese leaders have been working toward for decades — bringing an American president to Beijing as an undisputed peer,” said Julian Gewirtz, who served as China director on the National Security Council under President Joe Biden.
“Xi used the opulent optics of the visit to make clear to the world that China and the United States are the two dominant, equally matched superpowers. There is no going back.”
Trump’s friendly statements toward Xi and the Chinese people were being amplified in China’s state-controlled media, sending the message that “we’re getting along better with the Americans,” John Delury, a senior Fellow at the Asia Society, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
It was understandable that Trump wanted to be polite to Xi, but that the American president’s gushing approach “weakens Trump and the US”, R. Nicholas Burns, the ambassador to China during the Biden administration, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.
“Xi did not hesitate to warn Trump over Taiwan. Trump should not hesitate to be frank about our concerns, too,” he said.
Trump and Xi are expected to meet at least three times this year.
The US President has invited Xi to the White House in September.
Trump may travel to Shenzhen in China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November. And Xi could come to the G-20 summit in December in Miami.
“This is a summit again that was heavier on symbolism than it was on substance — focus on managing problems, not on solving the problems that exist between the US and China,” said Rush Doshi, former National Security Council deputy senior director for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration.
“The way that both leaders talked about the future indicates that this is going to be part of a process that will play out this year,” said Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of State in the Biden administration.
