As incessant rain wreaked havoc across Ratnagiri and the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, the death toll climbed to 83 while 50 remained missing on Sunday. Flood and landslide deaths across the state rose to 149 while the missing numbered 64.
Taking stock of the situation, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited some of the affected parts and learned that the locals were still asking for food, water, medicines, and fodder for animals.
“There is a massive shortage of food and water for the locals,” Rajendra Shinde, a Chiplun (Ratnagiri) resident, said. “Animals suffer from non-availability of fodder. Doctors are unavailable in the township but the administration is claiming the arrival of medical teams. Even muddy roads have not been cleaned,” he added.
Meanwhile, there was confusion over the number of missing people as well. The Mantralaya control room figure of 64 was contradicted by the CM’s office, which counted 100 people as ‘missing’ in the 72 hours till Sunday evening.
The Mantralaya control room figures stated 35 of the total 64 missing were from the worst-affected Raigad district, where 60 people died and 28 were injured. On Thursday, a heavy downpour triggered a massive landslide, resulting in the deaths of 53 people. The missing figure in Taliye was 31. With 45 houses destroyed, survivors were complaining about a lack of food, water, and medical help.
An official told The Times of India that most of the people would be cases of people buried in landslides or who were washed away in floodwaters. However, chances of survival after four days were slim, the official added.
With NDRF, SDRF, army, navy, and coast guard working tirelessly, the rescue operations are still underway.
A total of 2,29,074 people have been evacuated from their homes — 1,200 of these were from Ratnagiri, 1,000 from Raigad, 1,271 from Sindhudurg, and 1,69,998 from Sangli. In the MMR, local train services on the Karjat-Khopoli section, shut for over three days, were restored on Sunday.
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Source: News18