Widespread rains give relief to scarcity-hit Gujarat

In the last 24 hours, 65 talukas of North and Central Gujarat received 2-8 inches of rain, while 60 talukas got upto two inches of rain, officials said.

Last week, the state government had declared 152 talukas as scarcity hit areas as they have received less then 125 mm rain during the current monsoon season.

Following widespread and significant rains, 60 talukas have now come out of scarcity, officials at the State Emergency Operation Center (SEOC), Gandhinagar added.

Panchmahals, Dahod and Vadodara were the three districts which received highest rain in past 24 hours, where upto 8 mm of the rain was recorded.

Other areas of North and Central Gujarat too received rainfall upto two inches giving some relief to farmers and much joy to the people in general.

Meanwhile, because of the water release in some of the dams in the state authorities have to alert the villages nearby the river areas.

Authorities of Kadana Dam over Mahisagar river in Panchmahal district have opened the gates of the dam because of the major inflow of the water after rains in past 48 hours.

"We have decided to release around 4,00,000 cusecs water into the Mahisagar river which will give rise to the water level in the river. We have also alerted villages in adjoining areas too," added officials.

"The low pressure area over North West Madhya Pradesh and adjoining East Rajasthan is giving good rainfall in Gujarat region," regional Indian Meteorological Department(IMD)

head Jayanta Sarkar said.

In past 24 hours there has been very good rainfall in North, East Central and South Gujarat, he said adding that there has been scattered rainfall in Saurashtra and virtually no rains in Kutch region.

According to regional IMD officials, Gujarat still has 62 per cent deficient rains, while Saurashtra and Kutch have 82 per cent rain shortfall.

The highest cumulative rainfall since onset of monsoon in June till August 13, has been 159.7 mm against normal of 400.5 mm (in Ahmedabad) and 173.1 mm against normal of 523 mm (in Bharuch), among others, a IMD official said.