NEW DELHI: At least five people were killed in the ongoing flooding in the Indian state of Punjab, officials said Tuesday.
The deaths were reported from Fazilka and Kapurthala districts during the past twenty-four hours.
An official said that three people were killed in Kapurthala and 2 in Fazilka due to drowning and building-collapse incidents amid floods.
With no letup in dam discharge, the low-lying parts of several districts are inundated, Xinhua reported.
Thousands of acres of land is submerged in water spilling over from the overflowing rivers after dams’ floodgates were again partially opened for the 6th day on Tuesday.
Officials said though the water in most areas located upstream of the Beas and Sutlej rivers has started to recede, the downstream areas of Ferozepur, Fazilka, and Tarn Taran districts still remained inundated.
Floods in Indian Punjab
Floods in the state were triggered after the release of water from the Pong and Bhakra dams in neighboring Himachal Pradesh.
Officials said that so far, more than 70,000 people have been affected by the floods in the 7 affected districts of Punjab.
Last week landslides, flash floods, cloudbursts, and house collapses triggered by heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh killed more than seventy people. The incessant rains also pushed the water level up in multiple dams of the state.
Authorities in these flood-affected districts have deployed teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), army, and border guards to carry out rescue operations.
On Tuesday, India Meteorological Department issued an orange alert for Himachal Pradesh state, saying the state is likely to witness isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall until August 24.
In July, floods hit nineteen districts of Punjab, claiming forty-one lives.
