Bhakra Dam/ New Delhi, August 21
On a day when drought-hit West Bengal reported its first suicide by a farmer, the spectre of flood stared at several parts of North India.

People living in low-lying areas along the river Yamuna were evacuated in Delhi after the river rose beyond the danger level. The administration was put on a high alert in both Punjab and Haryana even as reports of
landslides continued to come in from both Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The weather forecast for the next one week ( August 21 to 27) promises heavy shower and widespread rainfall along the Himalayan foothills, which may well force the Bhakra Beas Management Board ( BBMB) to release more water than anticipated earlier.

Ironically, a year ago BBMB engineers had organised a ‘havan’ and a ‘paath’ to propitiate the rain-god and ask for more rainfall. On Saturday some of them seriously wondered if they should hold a similar exercise to plead for the rain to stop.

BBMB had cautiously released this morning around 16,000 cusecs of water. But heavy rain in the catchment areas have forced the Board to have a re-think. Earlier, the plan was to allow the inflow to raise the level of water in the reservoir by one foot every day till it touched the maximum level of 1,680 feet.

But the BBMB Member (irrigation) M K Gupta was emphatic on Saturday in saying, “ I will not allow the water-level to rise by more than six inches every day after August 26, if present trends continue.”

Till Saturday evening, villages of Nangal along the banks of the Satluj were not flooded though the water did inundate parts of some villages like Burj. But villagers took it in their stride (report inside) and declared that flooding of village streets was ‘quite normal’.

The village Sarpanch Surinder Singh Mataur was upset over public announcements asking people to vacate the villages along the Satluj and said that such unwarranted announcements had frightened the women and children.

As reported, the eastern part of the country is facing a drought and the overall Monsoon is said to be five per cent deficient. Out of the 36 meteorological divisions the rainfall has been excess in 10, normal in 18 and 
deficient in 7.

Experts, however, expect the fury of the rain in the northern and western parts of the country to abate by the first week of September.

(Inputs from Megha Mann)