As Nagpur city reeled under the onslaught of intense showers, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who visited the city’s flood-hit areas on Sunday, said the damage caused by the rain might have been minimised had older structures been repaired.
At least four people were killed and hundreds had to be rescued as the city received 109 millimetres of rain in barely three hours on Saturday.
Distraught citizens greeted Mr. Fadnavis’ convoy on Sunday as the Deputy CM, who hails from Nagpur, inspected the rain-hit areas and directed officials to take immediate measures.
“The situation is very bad. The people have suffered a lot due to water entering their homes and causing significant damage to property. While it is true that we do not have the carrying capacity to cope with showers of such, we could have minimised the damage if some measures, like removing older structures or repairing them, had been taken earlier,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
The Deputy CM, a former Mayor of Nagpur, who has been representing one of the city’s Assembly constituencies since 1999, said the government would henceforth work in a way to ensure that water did not overflow into people’s homes in future.
“The walls of the Nag river would be repaired and the State government will be repairing and laying out new infrastructure to prevent such occurrences on the future. While the India Meteorological Department had given an orange alert, it could not predict that so much rain would fall in such a short period. There is always something to be learnt from such disasters,” he said.
It is estimated that nearly 10,000 homes were affected by the flooding on Saturday, with water spilling over Nagpur’s famous Ambazari lake and the walls of the Nag river.
“Visited Ambazari and inspected the site, damages caused and instructed immediate measures and work to be undertaken. Visited Daga layout and corporation colony, met and interacted with the residents. The overflowing of Nag River has caused damage. It is unfortunate. I assured everyone we stand with you in these tough times and are doing our best,” Mr. Fadnavis had earlier posted on X (formerly Twitter).
However, Mr. Fadnavis’ Nagpur visit led to sabre-rattling between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties, as the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) accused the Deputy CM of behaving arrogantly and insensitively towards affected citizens seeking recompense for rain-related damages.
Both the Congress and the Sena (UBT) posted a clip on their respective accounts on X, alleging that Mr. Fadnavis had behaved “arrogantly” by shoving a rain-affected citizen who demanded the Deputy CM to visit his house and see the damage done.
In response, the BJP countered by claiming that Mr. Fadnavis had, in fact, taken the man, who was stopped by the Deputy CM’s security cordon, over to his side to listen to his demand, and even personally visited the citizen’s home.
