Hundreds stranded in Noida, Faridabad moved to safety
NEW DELHI: Among the thousands of people impacted by the floods along Yamuna banks in Noida this week, there were hundreds who were hired as help in farmhouses built illegally in the low-lying areas near the river, officials said.
Government officials said the workers and staffers of the farmhouses were not moved to safety in time even as advisories were issued well before the area got inundated.
These farmhouses are located near Nagli Wajidpur village in Sector 135 on the other side of the pushta (embankment) towards the Yamuna, some two km off the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.
“More than 500 such people were evacuated on Thursday and Friday from the farmhouses. As water entered the ground level, many of those stranded, including women, had taken shelter on the second storey of the farmhouses. They carried some food and water with them which had started to run out,” an officer engaged in rescue and relief measures said.
Many of these stranded people were discovered on Thursday when top police officers and administration officials took a boat ride deep into the flooded areas.
Several teams of the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force, the Provincial Armed Constabulary, the Noida Police, the Fire Brigade, the Noida Authority and local village residents were engaged in rescue operations.
Meanwhile, Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala Saturday inspected flood-hit villages of Faridabad on Saturday even as Faridabad Police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams rescued over 500 people were evacuated from flood-affected areas there and shifted them to safer places on Saturday, officials said.
Chautala visited Manjhawali on a tractor and inspected the flood condition near the Mohana- Baghpat Bridge and in the Baghpat area on a boat.
He directed the officials to evacuate the affected people by boats and lift them using helicopters
from places where boats cannot reach.
He also directed them to provide dry rations, food, drinking water, and medicines to the people stranded in the flood-affected areas.