45 killed in rain-related incidents in UP, Telangana

At least 45 people were killed in various rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana on Friday, a day after heavy downpour wreaked havoc in Maharashtra's Pune where schools remained closed and 3,000 people were evacuated.

Fairly widespread rainfall in Bihar and heavy downpour over sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are likely in the next three-four days, the IMD said in a special weather bulletin.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall in Gujarat and fairly widespread rainfall in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura is also likely during the same period, it added.

Forty-four people have died in rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh since Thursday and heavy downpour continued to disrupt normal life across the state on Friday, officials said in Lucknow.

Authorities have ordered schools in Lucknow, Amethi, Hardoi and some others districts to remain closed on Saturday on account of the heavy rains lashing the state.

Six deaths each were reported in Pratapgarh and Raebareli, five in Amethi, four each in Chandauli and Varanasi, three each in Allahabad, Barabanki and Mahoba, two in Ambedkar Nagar and one each in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Sonebhadra, Ayodhya, Saharanpur, Jaunpur, Kaushambi and Azamgarh, the officials said.

In the wake of continuing rains, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the divisional commissioners and the district magistrates to take all measures and extend immediate relief to those affected.

The chief minister has asked officials concerned to extend monetary aid of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed and arrange for the injured to get necessary treatment, an official said.

In Telangana, an eight-year-old girl was killed and her mother injured when the roof of their mud house collapsed in Narayanapet district of Telangana due to heavy rains.

The minor's mother is undergoing treatment at a government hospital.

Heavy rains have lashed Hyderabad and many other parts of the state since late Thursday, but there was a lull in the downpour on Friday morning.

Nearly 200 houses in Hyderabad's M S Maktha area were left inundated after a protective wall of a canal connected to Hussain Sagar Lake partially collapsed due to heavy rains. There was waterlogging in low-lying areas of the city.

Disaster rescue teams of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation shifted residents of some inundated residential colonies in special boats to safer places.

Heavy showers lashed Kangra and Sirmour districts in Himachal Pradesh, where the Meteorological Department had already issued a yellow warning of heavy rainfall in different parts of the state for Friday and Saturday.

Other parts also witnessed light to heavy rainfall during the day.

Schools in Maharashtra's Pune as well the tehsils of Haveli, Bhor, Purandar and Baramati were closed on Friday, a day after 17 people were killed in rain-related incidents in the city.

Nearly 3,000 people were taken to safer places due to flooding in the low-lying areas in Pune city and the district, police said.

Around 2,500 people had to be shifted to safer places in Baramati tehsil after water was released from the Nazare dam on the Karha river, district officials said.

On Friday morning, various authorities had put the figure of those shifted to safer places at around 15,000.