Rain to give through lashing, says IMD

Three persons including two teenagers of the Gonjari family were killed in Mhaswad village of Satara when their house caved in late Thursday night. Eighty-year-old Bapu Kashinath Gonjari and his grandchildren Ganesh (10) and Sumitra (14) crushed to death while Bajarang Gonjari, his wife Asha and daughter Neeta were badly injured.

Three others including a newly married couple, were killed in two separate incidents of wall-collapse reported from Solapur city and Kalamb village of Osmanabad district, yesterday. Narayansa Chavadimani and his wife Amruta were buried alive when their house collapsed in Lashkar area of Solapur. A youth was washed away in a flooded rivulet in Chitali village near Shrirampur in Ahmednagar, last evening, a delayed report said.

The demand for crop and other damage assessment in the prevailing weather conditions has started gaining ground in western Maharashtra districts. Unconfirmed estimates have put the damage to soybean, bajra, sunflower and other crops and pomegranate orchards in the region at a few million rupees.

The IMD has forecast moderate to heavy rainfall for Ahmednagar, Pune, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon districts as well as for all the districts of Marathwada. Moderate rainfall will occur at most places in all the districts of Konkan and Goa and in the remaining districts of madhya Maharastra during the next 48 hours, the office said.

The Kolhapur Zilla Parishad has made a unanimous demanded to declare the district as affected by “wet famine”. The ZP general body meeting yesterday was held in the incessant rain that lashed the district.

The meeting backed a resolution moved by ruling party member Arun Ingavale demanding that the State Government should provide help to all 12 talukas that have been adversely hit by post-monsoon showers.

ZP agricultural committee president Ramappa Karigar also demanded crop insurance scheme for Kolhapur.

Congress MP from Sangli, Madan Patil, today demamded that the Government declare a `wet famine’ situation in Sangli. “The rain so far has destroyed property and crops worth over Rs 25 crore,” Patil claimed criticising the State for its incomplete damage assessment. Patil also lambasted district guardian minister Anna Dange’s claims that the situation was not so serious.

Most of the otherwise parched eastern parts of Satara, Sangli and Solapur districts have received excessive rain this year, the available data indicates. In Satara district, Phaltan, Man Khatav and Khandala talukas have received surplus rains.

Flooding rivers and rivulets have caused havoc in many parts of these districts as flash-floods have thrown normal life out of gear at many places, reports indicated. Vehicular traffic on Solapur-Vijapur road was disrupted for several hours as the swirling water of Sina river submerged a section of the road near Wadakbal bridge.

The vehicular movement on Barshi and Tuljapur roads had also been affected while the reports reaching here also indicated major traffic snarls in parts of Ahmednagar district.