BHOAL: Nine members of an extended family were killed in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district on Monday after the van carrying them was swept away while crossing a flooded nullah, officials said.
The Maruti Eeco van was carrying 11 members of an extended family from Satwas in neighbouring Dewas district to Kadlawad village in Rajgarh when it was swept away at around 9.30am.
The vehicle, driven by Mukesh Singh, was travelling along the Pachore-Sarangpur Road when villagers near a tea shop stopped the group and warned them against taking the route.
They told the driver that an under-construction culvert was submerged and the nullah beneath it was dangerously flooded, and advised him to take an alternative, older route. However, Mukesh drove through the submerged culvert, after which the van was swept into the swollen nullah.
The incident occurred despite a local police outpost being about a kilometre away. No police personnel had been deployed to divert traffic from the dangerous route amid the heavy rains.
Villagers who saw the van being swept away began search and rescue operations before the police and State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF) teams arrived.
Two occupants, including the driver Mukesh Singh and Hukum Singh, were rescued by the villagers. The remaining nine members of the extended family were swept away.
Hours later, all nine missing occupants, including three children and three women, were found dead. Their bodies were recovered from the nullah by villagers, SDERF and police personnel.
The deceased included middle-aged couple Shankar Singh and Sagar Bai, Hukum Singh’s wife and two children, young couple Vishal and Pooja Chauhan, besides two others. The van was later retrieved from the flooded nullah with the help of a crane.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expressed his condolences over the deaths and announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh each for the families of the deceased.
Central Madhya Pradesh wrost hit, 98 rescued
Meanwhile, overnight heavy rains and flooding affected several parts of central Madhya Pradesh, including the state capital Bhopal and neighbouring districts.
Home Guards and SDERF teams rescued at least 98 people stranded in heavy rain and flash floods across the state over the past 24 hours.
In Sehore district, a 23-year-old pregnant woman, Geeta Rajput, and three other members of her family were rescued after they became trapped in their house, which was surrounded by a flash-flooded stream in Jamni village. In neighbouring Bhopal district, four people were rescued in the Ahmadpur area.
In Bhopal, where all schools from nursery to Class XII were closed because of continuing heavy rain, 19 people were rescued from the effects of a small dam breach in Balampur village under the Sukhi Sewania area. Four others were rescued elsewhere in the city.
In neighbouring Vidisha district, SDERF and Home Guards teams conducted rescue operations in Baman Kheda and Pathariya villages, rescuing 19 people, including 15 labourers.
In southwestern Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district, two SDERF personnel, Tejpal and Bal Bahadur, rescued three devotees from drowning in the Narmada river at Abhaypuri Ghat in the pilgrimage town of Omkareshwar.
In Rajgarh district’s Bandhakhedi village, 15 people who had taken shelter on a roof after rainwater surrounded a temple were rescued by SDERF and Home Guards teams.
In neighbouring Agar Malwa district, more than 30 people were evacuated and moved to safer locations following severe waterlogging.