Ranchi: Continuous rain continued to affect major parts of Jharkhand in the last 24 hours, throwing life out of gear on Tuesday.
However, the rain deficit went on a decline with the number of districts in the ‘deficient’ category coming to four from six within a day.
Two persons lost their lives when a tree fell on the auto-rickshaw carrying them, smashing it under its enormous weight. Schools were ordered to be kept closed on Wednesday (26th July) in Ranchi, East Singhbhum, Seraikela- Kharsawan and Giridih.
Dhanbad schools will remain closed on 26th and 27th July, sources said. Meanwhile, problems pertaining to lack of civic amenities continued to
plague urban areas in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad.
Commuting in remote areas became a challenging task with water flowing over the arterial roads and small culverts getting damaged at many
places.
Efforts to restore the diversion on National Highway-33 in East Singhbhum, connecting Jharkhand to West Bengal, continued with the work
not yet complete.
Water is being released from Tenguhat and Konar and Patratu dams in Bokaro and Ramgarh, respectively.
The water level in Chandil dam in Seraikela Kharsawan also continued to remain at a high level.
The weather department has predicted that the onslaught of rain would begin easing from Wednesday and may stop over the next couple of
days.
According to meteorological department, the state has received five per cent above normal rain in this monsoon season, starting from June 1 till July 25.
From a deficit of 17 per cent less than normal on July 23, the total rainfall has jumped to 493.2 mm against a normal of 467.2 mm by Tuesday.
Ranchi received the highest overall rainfall in the last 24 hours at 71 mm, followed by Daltonganj at 51 mm and Jamshedpur at 34 mm. Dhanbad too received high rainfall, with Panchet receiving at least 19 mm. Ranchi Deputy
Commissioner Manoj Kumar today ordered closure of schools in the district till on July 26. Early today, two persons were killed in Govind Nagar
under Ratu police station area of the district when an old tree fell on the autorickshaw they were going in.
Out of the seven injured, one is reported to be in a critical condition.
Further, NDRF officials paid a visit to a cold storage in Kanke Block, as it appeared that the building might collapse, leading to leakage of ammonia gas.
“The NDRF team had come. We have extracted all the ammonia gas in its system in a controlled manner.
The building looks weak as the central pillar is bending. But, now, we have ensured that there would be no problem for the common people,” said Kanke BDO Gautam Sahu.
In Dhanbad, reports of wall collapse were received from different areas of Jharia, Nirsa and Govindpur.
In Hazaribagh, culverts and a couple of check dams got damaged at Ichak, Barkagaon and Katkamsandi.
In Ramgarh, the areas around Bhairavi reservoir continued to be inundated with water.
Thanks to the incessant rain over the last four days, Ramgarh has received 85 per cent more rain than normal. The districts now falling under ‘deficient’ category are Chatra, Gumla, Sahibganj and Godda.
However, Garhwa continued to remain critical with 69 per cent less than normal showers in this season. Meanwhile, the paddy sowing, which was languishing at nearly 27 per cent of the target of 1,770 thousand hectares till a week ago, is likely to see a quantum jump.
A wrecked auto-rickshaw after being smashed under a huge tree that fell following continuous showers in Ranchi on Tuesday. Several people were injured in the incident.