Fadnavis to chair Cabinet meet on Maharashtra floods

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will chair a Cabinet meeting here to review the flood-like situation in the state, particularly in Kolhapur and Sangli districts on Wednesday.

Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Pune districts are affected by flood-like situation following heavy rains in the state.

The government has evacuated over 50,000 people in these districts, Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar told ANI.

Authorities are evacuating people from low-lying areas of Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Pune districts as a precautionary measure following the India Meteorological Department’s prediction about heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next three days in Maharashtra, an official said Tuesday.

Four teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been carrying out rescue and relief operations in Kolhapur and Sangli districts. Troops of the territorial army have also been deployed in the Pune region.

“The government has moved five additional NDRF teams from Bhubaneswar to speed up the rescue operations. A team of Navy personnel with a chopper have been called from Mumbai,” he said.

The government completely closed the Pune-Bangalore Highway last night. “All passengers are advised to stay at either in Satara or Pune till the time the situation is under control,” the officer said.

On Monday, Fadanvis spoke to his Karnataka counterpart BS Yediyurappa to release water from Almatti dam to ease the situation in the region.