New Delhi: As floods continue to ravage several states across the country, Cabinet secretary P.K. Sinha on Tuesday held a high-level meeting to review the situation prevailing in Punjab, Haryana, Uttara-khand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.
Official sources said that during the meeting of the National Crisis Manage-ment Committee (NCMC), Mr Sinha directed the officials to provide immediate assistance to flood-hit states and took stock of the rescue and relief operations as well as preparedness of the teams prepared to undertake salvage operations.
As of now, 28 teams of the National Disaster Response Force are deployed in these states and resources from the Army and the Air Force, have been pressed into service, sources said, adding that additional teams are also on standby for any exigency.
Mr Sinha also directed the officials to make available necessary financial assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund to the affected states, they added. The India Meteorolo-gical Department (IMD) stated that while there has been very heavy rainfall in these states over the past few days, the intensity is likely to decline in the coming days.
Rains in the northern states have claimed at least 38 lives, leaving hundreds of people in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh stranded and several areas in Punjab and Haryana completely flooded.
In Delhi, the Yamuna river continued to swell on Tuesday and was flowing above the danger level.
