Madhya Pradesh Floods: Alertness of SDM Kolaras Rescues 75 West Bengal Migrant Labourers

BHOPAL / At least 75 migrant labourers of West Bengal who were trapped in a flood have been rescued on late Saturday evening by the SDM of the Kolaras subdivision in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh with the help of the Army helicopter and rescue teams of National and State disaster response forces.

As heavy to extremely heavy rain wreaked havoc in Shivpuri, Gwalior, Datia, Sheopur, Morena, Guna and Ashoknagar districts of the Gwalior and Chambal divisions of Madhya Pradesh.

In Shivpuri’s Kolaras subdivision 75 migrant labourers of West Bengal who were engaged in the road construction work connecting Padora and Khaniadhana, had been trapped in the flood came in Sindh river due to a heavy rain reported in the area and upstream of the river. They had been stranded on concrete lots for four previous days at the road construction sites near Gora and Teela villages surrounded by the Sindh river and its tributaries. They work in a Delhi based Diamond Construction company. The company management didn’t take care of them while the labourers were struggling for rescuing. Somehow, some villagers informed the SDM Kolaras, Ganesh Jaiswal about the situation of the labourers.

“As soon as getting information about stranding the labourers, we contacted the collector sir and he arranged an Army helicopter. With the help of rescue teams and the helicopter, we rescued successfully to them,” SDM Kolaras Ganesh Jaiswal told The Sun Today.

“The NDRF and the SDRF teams that were already rescuing the trapped people in the subdivision made free other 40 migrant labourers with the help of a rope from Teela village and the remaining 35 workers had been rescued by the helicopter from Gora village”, Jaiswal said.

After medical testing, all 75 migrant labourers have been handed over to the company’s staff and instructed the management to take care of them properly, Jaiswal added.

Altogether 700 stranded people from various villages had been rescued by Sub Divisional Magistrate Kolaras Jaiswal with the help of the Army helicopter and Disaster Response Teams so far.

The toll in flood-related incidents in the Chambal-Gwalior region of Madhya Pradesh rose to 24 so far.

So far, 8,800 people stranded due to floods have been rescued by the central and state disaster relief teams, the Army and the Air Force. As many as 29,000 residents have been evacuated to safer places.

Nearly 1,250 villages in the districts of Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Sheopur, Datia, Ashoknagar, Bhind and Morena have been affected by the floods triggered by torrential rains over the past week.