Vadodara Floods: politicians face people’s ire

Vadodara : The Gujarat government has moved in-charge secretary Vinod Rao, Chief Minister’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Atul Gor, and RAC Sudhir Patel to flood-hit Vadodara to assist and coordinate the relief and rescue works.

Vinod Rao is camping in Vadodara and offering his expertise, as he had been the Municipal Commissioner of the city in the past. A special cell has been created for the solution of complaints in the district collector office under Resident Additional Collector Dr. BS Prajapati. The district collector has appointed 22 officers to assess the damages that occurred during the calamity. Deputy District Election Officer Vivek Tank is assigned Disaster Branch’s coordination responsibility.

Due to continuous release of water from Ajwa Dam in Vadodara city, Vishwamitri river was flooded and the waters entered the surrounding bank area. Due to this, millions of people are confined to their homes. However, the water levels in Vishwamitri river has started receding and that it has come down to 32.50 feet. 

NDRF teams have rescued 176 people from societies including Kansa Residency in Vadsar area including 58 children and a stray dog.  The NDRF team and the rescued people were fed by the people of Vallabh Residency in Vadsar.

As the flood waters have started receding in Vadodara, the political leaders are facing the resentment of people during their field survey. Balkrishna Shukla, the whip of the State Legislative Assembly, was the victim of people’sfury. Balakrishna reached Ajita Nagar in Shukla Sama area along with Vadodara  BJP President Dr. Vijay Shah. The residents affected with floods joined their hands and chanted ‘Jai Shia Ram’ and requested them to leave from the spot. 

The residents posed questions as to why the political leaders were not in the field to provide food and water to the flood-affected people in Vadodara. Who is going to pay for the losses incurred by the residents during the floods.

29 more boats have been allocated for relief and rescue operations in the floods that hit Vadodara city. Apart from this, the personnel of the emergency rescue team, including the army, and the fire brigade have also started rescuing people from the water. Resident Additional Collector Dr. B. S. Prajapati said that 14 mechanical and manual boats from Dabhoi, 10 from Karajan and 15 from Vadodara rural area have been brought to Vadodara city and engaged in relief work to intensify relief and rescue operations in Vadodara city. Karajan MLA Akshay Patel himself came to Vadodara with 10 boats and started rescuing people. A total of 39 boats have been used to rescue people from the water.

Two youths were electrocuted while drawing water from a hospitality party plot in Vemali. Both the youths went down to drain the water in the basement. The manager and security guard of the party plot have died. The family has accused the owner of the party plot of negligence. The owner of the party plot said that they died after being thrown into the water. Police reached the spot and started investigation.