Central team to visit to Maharashtra flood-hit areas from August 29

A photo of the flood like situation in Maharashtra this month. Pic/CMO Maharashtra's Twitter

A Central team is scheduled to visit Pune and the Konkan divisions in order to assess the damage that has been caused by floods recently, said a senior Maharashtra government official on Wednesday.

"A team of seven officials from various Central departments will begin its visit to the Pune and Konkan divisions to assess the damages caused by heavy rainfall and flood," said a senior Relief and Rehabilitation department official. The Konkan administrative division consists of seven districts which are Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Sindhudurg.

The Pune division consists of Pune, Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Solapur districts. As most are aware, due to Maharashtra floods, the Sangli and Kolhapur districts were majorly affected and heavy showers as well as the water that was released by the dams earlier in August. "Some officials of the team will visit flood-hit areas of Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Pune, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. They will be briefed first tomorrow (Thursday) morning before they actually begin their tour," said Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune Divisional Commissioner.

The teams will also interact with those people who were affected in order to make their assessment during the three-day visit before they interact with the state government officials. When questioned regarding the actual timeline for the Centre disbursing funds, the Relief and Rehabilitation department official said, "It generally takes a month for the Centre to sanction funds. The state government has already disbursed cash as well as funds into the bank accounts of the flood-hit people". He said funds to be sanctioned by the Centre will be adjusted against the disbursement effected by the state government.

The official said the disbursement of funds will not come to a halt in the event of the model code of conduct for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls 2019, due in September-October, which is set to begin. Maharashtra witnessed major rainfall in the second week of August for a period of four days and this led to major flood-situations in Kolhapur and Sangli districts. Many rivers had also crossed the danger marks in these areas by many feet.

Noted environmentalist Madhav Gadgil and South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People had blamed "lapses" by the state government in dam management for the floods.

With inputs from PTI

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