Maha floods: CM says rainfall unprecedented, more than in 2005

Under fire from Opposition for 'inadequate' response to devastating floods in western Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Saturday that the rainfall was unprecedented with the Sangli district getting 785 per cent of average rain in just nine days.

Addressing a press conference here, he defended rescue and relief efforts as well as minister Girish Mahajan who got into a soup after his selfie in a rescue boat went viral.

During the 2005 floods in the state, Sangli district got 217 per cent of average rain in a month; this time there was 758 per cent rainfall in just nine days, Fadnavis said.

Kolhapur had got 159 per cent rain in a month in 2005; it received 480 per cent rain in nine days this time, he added.

The Koyna reservoir received fifty tmc (thousand million cubic feet) water in nine days, he said, adding "the unprecedented rainfall was more than double that of what was experienced in 2005."
On the row over the government resolution (GR) that compensation will be paid only if the area was under water for two days, Fadnavis said, "This is a revised GR, the earlier one from January 2014 said seven days. We have clarified that the two-day condition did not mean one should have been in flood water for two days."