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Rains lash Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan

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Press Trust of India New Delhi

Rain waters inundated several low lying areas in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh and temporarily disrupted normal life.

While Chandigarh was drenched by 46.2 mm of rains, in Ambala the rain gauge read 42.8 mm. Bhiwani had 0.6 mm and Amritsar 12 mm of rainfall, the Met office said here.

The rain is considered beneficial for the standing paddy crop in the agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana, experts said. Besides, the rain also helped in easing out power situation in the states.

Neighboring Delhi had another cloudy day, but there were no rains and the humidity remained on the higher side-- 68-92 per cent. The maximum temperature was at 34 degree Celsius, one degree above normal, and the minimum was 26.6 degree Celsius.

 

In the wake of rainfall in the three states, the maximum temperatures fell sharply by upto four notches below normal at a few places there.

Amritsar settled at a high of 33.6 degrees Celsius, whereas Hisar had a high of 33 degrees celsius, three points below normal.

The Met department has forecast moderate to heavy rainfall at many places in the region during the next 24 hours.

In Rajasthan, most of the places under Kota, Udaipur, Jaipur and Ajmer divisions, few areas in Jodhpur and isolated patches in Bikaner recorded light to moderate rainfall since yesterday morning.

Heavy rainfall also occurred at isolated places in eastern parts of the state during this period, according to Met department here. Nadbai and Shergarh each recorded 13 cm while Sarmathur, Siorhi and Todaraisingh recorded 11, 10 and 9 cm rainfall respectively till this morning.

In flood-hit Uttarakhand, defence helicopters rescued nearly 60 people, mostly pilgrims to Gangotri shrine, from Harsil area of Uttarakashi district even as relief operation continued on a war-footing.

"Today, the relief operation is continuing and MI-17 helicopters rescued nearly 60 stranded people from Harsil," said chief secretary Alok Kumar Jain.

Despite inclement weather conditions, the choppers managed to airlift the 60 stranded people who were mostly pilgrims of Gangotri shrine, he said.

  

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First Published: Aug 10 2012 | 7:50 PM IST

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