In Pune, 50 people were evacuated due to heavy rains while 4 swept away by swollen stream

(Eds: Updates with latest info) Pune, Oct 15 ()Nearly 50 people were evacuated from two flood-hit villages in Solapur, while four persons were swept away by a swollen stream in Pune after heavy rains in the two Maharashtra districts, officials said on Thursday.

In the last couple of days, heavy rains lashed severak parts of the state, including Pune, Solapur and Kolhapur.

A few villages in Solapur's Mohol tehsil have been flooded and teams the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), district disaster management cell have been deployed to evacuate stranded people, an official from the district administration said.

The NDRF also said it has deployed one team to evacuate people stranded in some remote areas of Mohol tehsil.

"Around 50 people who were stranded in remote areas of Ghatni and Kharkhatne villages in the tehsil have so far been evacuated with the help of the NDRF team," the district administration official said.

He said the NDRF, teams of the district disaster management cell and local administration are also moving to other flood-affected villages to shift the people stuck there to safer places.

The district received 79 mm rainfall on Wednesday, the official added.

The evacuation work is going on in several parts of the district since Wednesday night, Superintendent of Police Tejasvi Satpute said.

On Wednesday, six people were killed when a wall on the banks of the Chandrabhaga river in the Pandharpur temple town of Solapur collapsed due to heavy rains.

State Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday ordered a probe into it and instructed that an offence of culplable homicide be filed against those responsible for it.

In Pune, four people were swept away by a swollen stream in Khanota village on Wednesday while they were trying to cross the water body on two motorcycles, an official from Daund police station said.

"We recovered three bodies on Thursday morning and search is one for the fourth person," he said.

Several low-lying areas in Pune experienced water- logging on Wednesday night after heavy showers.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune city received 96 mm rainfall on Wednesday.

The IMD has predicted moderate rainfall with isolated heavy showers coupled with thunderstorm in Pune and neighbouring areas in the next couple of days.

A fire brigade official said they received 35 to 40 calls of water-logging and tree fall from different parts of Pune city.

"Several societies in low-lying areas experienced water-logging," he said.

Traffic on the Pune-Solapur Highway was disrupted for more than an hour on Wednesday evening after parts of the road were flooded due to incessant rains. The vehicular movement later resumed after the water receded.

Besides, Kolhapur received 56 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, an official from the district disaster cell said.

"Though there has been heavy rain in the last 24 hours, there is no need to panic as the level of the Panchganga river in Kolhapur is at 17.9 feet, which is way below the warning level," he said.

The official said some small streams and rivulets were swollen due to the heavy showers, but no road was closed for vehicular movement.

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