Amid the continuous downpour, the Uttar Pradesh government has expedited its relief and rescue operations on a war footing to prevent any loss of life and damage to property in flood-affected areas in the state.

On the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, special attention is being given to preparations related to flood control and relief and rescue operations in the sensitive districts. The government is making fool-proof arrangements in advance to deal with emergencies.

The state government has deployed around 1133 boats and 409 medical teams while 828 flood relief camps, 976 flood posts and 360 animal relief camps have been set up. Along with over 39 teams, including those of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), SDRF and PAC to tackle the floods have been deployed.

In the flood relief camps, facilities like drinking water, toilets, clothes, utensil and bedding among others are being provided. Covid protocol is also being followed in these shelters.

According to the Department of Irrigation, there is an increase in the water levels of rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Betwa, Sharda , Kuwano and Chambal. At present 247 villages of 15 districts are affected by the floods in the state.

Etawah, Hamirpur and Jalaun districts of Uttar Pradesh are highly vulnerable districts in terms of flooding. More than 60 villages are flood-affected in each of these districts. The Chief Minister has directed the district magistrates and superintendents of police to visit the sensitive spots in the flood-affected areas.

The Jal Shakti minister has been directed to review the flood situation and relief and rescue work with the officials of the local administration. An aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of around the Chambal and Yamuna districts is being conducted.

Over 7015 dry ration kits have been distributed by the government so far, while 1230 people have been distributed dry ration kits in the last 24 hours. The state government has distributed 28028 lunch packets to the affected people till now. In the last 24 hours itself, 7491 lunch packets have been distributed.

Along with this, about 12 animal camps were set up in the last 24 hours for the protection of animals along with human life. Till now, the government has set up around 360 animal camps in the state. In these camps, vaccination of more than 724329 animals have been done.

The state government is fully alert to prevent the damage caused by the floods with over 10 teams of NDRF deployed in 9 districts of the state namely Etawah, Jalaun, Bahraich, Shravasti, Siddharth Nagar, Gorakhpur, Lucknow , Ballia and Varanasi. While 12 teams of SDRF have been deployed in Etawah, Jalaun,Bareilly, Bijnaur, Lucknow, Balrampur, Prayagra, Agra, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Ballia and Kushinagar.

Similarly, 17 PAC teams have been deployed in 14 districts of the state including Sitapur, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Agra, Azamgarh, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Gonda, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Etah and Meerut. Thus, at present, a total of 39 teams are pre-deployed for rescue operations.

Teams of NDRF and SDRF have evacuated 536 people from flood affected areas and shifted them to relief camps.

Air Force helicopters distributing relief material to the flood affected families

Due to the floods in Chambal and Yamuna river, the contact between Madhogarh tehsil of Jalaun and 5 villages of Kalpi was lost. Relief material was distributed to the families in these villages with the help of 2 Air Force helicopters.

In 10 villages of Madhogarh, packets containing lentils, gram, biscuits, jaggery, namkeen, bathing soap, matches and candles have been distributed to 1500 persons. In 5 villages of Tehsil Kalpi, packets of material were distributed to 1000 persons.

Committees have been formed by the government at the village level for rescue and relief works in the flood affected villages. In order to maintain co-ordination with these village level committees and nodal officers, police personnel with one wireless set each have been deployed in each village.