Several villages of Gorakhpur- Basti zone inundated

Gorakhpur: Flood water of river Rapti entered eight villages in Deoria district and affected several others areas in Gorakhpur-Basti zone on Tuesday night.
On Tuesday night, around 8:30pm, Dalpatpur- Parsohan dam at river Boodhi Rapti near Denghar village got damaged and water entered several villages. More than 100 villages of Haraiya and Sadar Tehsil of Basti district have been affected by the overflowing river Ghaghra.The Ring Dam on river Ghaghra near Kanghusra village was also damaged on Tuesday night and affected at least half dozen villages of the area.
On Monday, the administration had cut the approach road to prevent the villages lying north of Shahpur-Khadakpur dam in Belghat area but five villages among them are inundated and more than 700 people were left homeless.
However, the villages lying south of the dam were also affected and people of the area are alleging the administration that the road was cut without prior notice. Whereas, the administrative officers claim that they have made relief camps in schools but people are not ready to go there. They also claim that they have deployed 35 boats and eight mini-steamers and as per SDM, Gola, no village in his Tehsil is heavily affected by flood water.
Talking to TOI, Rakesh Kumar, civil engineer and social worker, said, “The situation in Belghat area went worse due to lack of proper planning as the administration should have thought of flood before constructing approach road near Kamariya Ghat. Now the administration is left with only two alternatives, either they raise the height of the bridge or construct a contact road at the bridge.” Although the concerned officials said that they had already sent the proposal of increasing the height of bridge seven years ago but the people residing around Kamariya Ghat went for ‘jal satyagrah’ and due to heavy pressure the government gave its acceptance too.