Mumbai: The death toll in the flood-ravaged districts of Konkan and western Maharashtra on Tuesday rose to 209 after the addition of 17 more deaths, officials said. Eight people are still missing.
The death toll climbed up from 192 to 209 after a massive operation got underway On Tuesday to clean up the mess and muck left behind by last week's horrendous floods in western and coastal Maharashtra.
The state is expected to announce a relief package for flood-affected people after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
As many as 434,185 people have been evacuated and relocated to safer areas after their homes were submerged or badly damaged in the floodwaters, which reached up to 20 feet high in some areas, with 1,351 villages directly affected by the rain fury.
The largest evacuation took place from western Maharashtra districts - Sangli (211,808), Kolhapur (161,564), Satara (49,149), and Pune (263), followed by Konkan districts - Thane (6,930), Sindhudurg (1,271), Ratnagiri (1,200), and Raigad (1,000), and a majority have been housed in 308 relief camps, the SDMA said.
At least 52 people injured in various incidents are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Satara, and Kolhapur, while a few victims of hill-slides in Raigad have been admitted to specialised hospitals in Mumbai.
Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that thousands of homes, roads and huge agricultural lands have been destroyed.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has already indicated that a comprehensive relief package will be declared by Wednesday and help will be sought from the Centre.
Though Raigad called off the rescue operations on Monday, efforts still continue to save people in the other districts, evacuating them to camps, providing them reaching food or medicine and other aid materials, said an official of the SDMA.
A total of 16 NDRF teams, down from 33 on Monday, plus 131 boats and 3 Indian Army teams are still in the field helping out the flood-hit people and even animals wherever possible.
State Energy Minister Dr Nitin Raut, on a tour of Raigad, said that efforts are underway on a war-footing to restore power supply in the affected districts.
In the past 6 days since July 22, many parts of the western and coastal regions witnessed unprecedented record rainfall resulting in over a dozen hillsides and landslips in different districts with a huge human toll.