Heavy rain in Nagpur, Vidhan Bhavan flooded
The monsoon session of Maharashtra Assembly had to be adjourned for an hour on Friday, after low lying areas of the Vidhan Bhavan were flooded following torrential rain and power cut. Lawmakers were seen moving to higher grounds of the building. Nagpur is witnessing very heavy rain since last night. Residents have been posting pictures of extensive flooding on the social media, criticising poor infrastructure facilities and lack of preparedness.
Area where bungalows of the ministers and residential quarters of legislators are located are also flooded. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was present in the flood control room overseeing the situation.
Shiv Sena, an ally of the ruling BJP in the state was quick to criticise the government. "Had this happened in Mumbai, there would have been a barrage of criticism against the Sena-run Mumbai civic body. Everybody would have demanded an inquiry against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation," Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu told news agency PTI.
"Nagpur Municipal Corporation is run by the BJP. It should have provided basic infrastructure to ensure rain doesn't obstruct the proceedings of the monsoon session," Mr Prabhu said.
NCP lawmaker and former minister Bhaskar Jadhav said, "This government is fully exposed. It had decided that the monsoon session will be held in Nagpur. Shouldn't it make all the arrangements to put the disaster management systems in place?"
An embarrassed state energy minister Chandrashekar Bawankule said it was for the first time that rain has affected the legislature proceedings. "This happened because maybe the drainage was not cleaned," Mr Bawankule said, adding that the water level is receding and the situation will soon be normal.
Nagpur has received 163 mm of rainfall in just 3 hours today, according to a private forecast agency Skymet Weather. The District Collector of Nagpur has announced that schools will be closed on Saturday after heavy rain alert for the next 48 hours in the region.