Uttarakhand braces for wet spell after MeT office sounds rain alert

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at many places across Uttarakhand for Friday.

The MeT department predicted that light to moderate rain or thundershowers is likely to occur at most places in Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Almora, Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

Rain is also likely at many places in Dehradun, Pauri, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts, and a few places in Haridwar district on Friday.

Heavy rainfall across the state since the last few days has triggered landslides at many places with major highways being blocked due to debris.

In Haridwar, incessant rain in the past two days has led to water logging at various colonies and intersections affecting normal.

The water level of Ganga is 1.60 meter below the danger level of 293 meter. As a precautionary measure administration has cautioned villagers and slum dwellers residing near the river and asked them to stay away from it during the rainy season.

Additional police personnel and city patrol unit (CPU) were deployed at water logged intersections and highway points to divert and manage traffic. Traffic snarls were reported for over two hours from various parts of the city.

Haridwar Mayor Anita Sharma has blamed local legislator and urban development minister Madan Kaushik for not cooperating with her in providing a long term solution of water logging in the city.

“For the past 20 years he (Kaushik) has been the local legislator. He is also the urban development cabinet minister but the water logging problem has still not been solved. Owing to political interests, the BJP government has been ignoring my suggestions and proposals in this regard,” said Sharma.

Denying the mayor’s charges, Kaushik said that already work has started under Amrit Yojana to provide a permanent solution to water logging at Chandracharya square, the busiest square of Haridwar.

Meanwhile, in Pauri Garhwal, 11 village roads were blocked due to landslides triggered by rainfall.

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