Patiala, July 20
A fresh breach occurred in the Ghaggar at Arlana village in Kaithal district on the border with Samana, inundating paddy fields in two villages of the District, even as Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon held officials of the Drainage and Irrigation Department responsible for the breach which occurred at Rasoli village.

Flood waters inundated around 1,000 acres of land in Kartarpur and Jheel villages in Samana subdivision on the border with Haryana following a 50-foot breach in the Ghaggar at Arlana village.

Meanwhile, Mr Sekhon today visited the food-affected areas in the district. Talking to newspersons at the circuit house here, he said it had been revealed that the breach at Rasoli had occurred due to negligence on the part of Irrigation and Drainage Department officials. He said strict action would be taken against those found guilty.

The minister said that except for the breach at Rasoli in a bundh constructed by government agencies, the other breaches had occurred at places where people had constructed of their own bundhs.

He said five of the breaches had been plugged while the remaining three would be plugged in three to four days. He said while the breaches at Ohan in Dakala block and Chhicherwal near Khanauri would be plugged in two days, the breach at Bodhan in Dera Bassi subdivision would take another four days to plug as it was 540-feet wide.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Jasbir Singh Bir said the situation was still to normalise at Khanauri, where the siphons were not capable of taking in the heavy flow of Ghaggar water. He said water was still flowing at 752.5 feet above sea level there whereas the danger mark was at 748 feet. He said the levels of Tangri and Markanda rivers had, however, gone down in the past 24 hours. Mr Bir said the two rivers, which were flowing much above the danger mark earlier, were now flowing at the danger mark.

In a separate press conference, Patiala MP Preneet Kaur alleged that a bundh had breached at Lachhru Khurd which had been constructed at a cost of Rs 7.50 lakh recently. She, along with former Minister Lal Singh, alleged that no flood protection work had been done in the district this year and that an inquiry should be ordered into the utilisation of funds on flood protection works in the district during the past four years.

The Congress leader also urged the Deputy Commissioner and the visiting Irrigation Minister to take the help of the Army to plug various breaches in the Ghaggar in the district. Ms Preneet Kaur said she had talked with the Army authorities on the issue, adding that the administration seemed to be reluctant to take Army help. She also demanded that girdwaris should be held in flood-affected areas and compensation be given to those affected by the natural calamity.

SANGRUR: To review the flood situation and flood control measures, Mr Janmeja Singh Sekhon, along with Mr Gobind Singh Longowal, Minister of State for Irrigation, Punjab, and Mrs Surjit Kaur Sandhu, Secretary, Irrigation, Punjab, today visited Khanauri and met residents of the flood-affected areas.

The Chief Engineer (Drainage), Punjab, the Chief Engineer (Irrigation), Punjab, besides the Sangrur Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sarvjit Singh, were also present on the occasion. The ministers and the officers held discussions to tackle the flood situation and find a permanent solution to the Ghaggar problem at the Khanauri canal rest-house.

The ministers and officers visited RD-460 and RD-455 (Bateesdara) where they also talked to residents of Khanauri and other nearby villages.

Talking to The Tribune this evening over the phone, Mr Sarvjit Singh said Mr Sekhon had asked the Chief Engineer (Drainage), Punjab, to come up with a plan for the widening of the Ghaggar up to 50 feet each on both sides in the areas of Sangrur district so that residents could be saved from the havoc of floods.

Mr Sekhon also asked the irrigation authorities to hold discussions with the Sangrur Deputy Commissioner for selecting a site to erect a regulator on the Jhambowali choe.

Meanwhile, a team formed by the district administration comprising officials from various departments toured the flood-affected villages to provide assistance to residents of flood-affected areas.

Ghaggar water today entered through Bateesdara in the fields of Jogawala and Hotipur villages. It had already entered the fields in other villages in the Khanauri area, including Andana, Baopur, Therri, Banarsi and Mandvi.

Bhubaneswar, July 20
The flood situation in Orissa’s coastal deltaic region worsened today after the huge discharge from the Hirakud dam reached the plains, official reports said.

The death toll in the calamity had been officially put at 42, which did not include four persons swept away at Tikarpanga under Patkura block in Kendrapara district yesterday.

The rivers in the Mahanadi system, which had been showing a receding trend till last evening, had suddenly started to rise and were flowing much above their danger marks.

Though no information about fresh breaches had been received as yet — there had been 30 on capital embankments till yesterday — causing worry to the administration.

The situation at the Hirakud reservoir had improved with the inflow into the dam reduced to only 3.15 lakh cusecs. The dam level was measured at 625.25 feet against the maximum level of 630 feet and it was falling, dam control room sources at Burla said.

The dam, at the same time, was releasing 4.59 lakh cusecs into the river to further reduce the water level, the sources said.

The water level of the Mahanadi and Kathajodi rivers at Cuttack city, however, had remained steady for about three hours this morning, the official sources said.

While the Mahanadi was flowing at 22.12 metre at Jobra against the red mark of 21.94 metre, the level of the Kathajodi, at Belle Vue, was measured at 25.5 feet against the danger mark of 22.5 feet.

A report from Kendrapara said about 1 lakh persons had remained marooned in the district for the past three days.

Nearly 50,000 persons, belonging to nine gram panchayats in Patkura block, had been marooned and there had been no information about them till now, the Additional Relief Commissioner, Mr Gagan Bihari Dhal, said.

About 20,000 persons belonging to 13 villages in the Luna-Karandia island had also remained marooned as also an equal number belonging to 47 villages in Rajnagar block, official reports said.

The water level in most of the rivers in Kendrapara district, including Luna, Chitrotpala and Paika, had risen by about two feet since last night, official reports said.

A population of about 10.5 lakh in the eight blocks of the district had been hit in the floods.