Noida floods: 500 rescued from illegal farmhouses

Noida: Among the thousands of people impacted by the floods along Yamuna banks in Noida this week, there were hundreds who were hired as help in farmhouses built illegally in the low-lying areas near the river, officials said.

Government officials said the workers and staffers of the farmhouses-thousands in number - were not moved to safety in time, even though advisories were issued well before the area got inundated.

These farmhouses are located near Nagli Wajidpur village in Sector 135 on the other side of the pushta (embankment) towards the Yamuna - some two kilometres off the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

“More than 500 such people were evacuated from the farmhouses. As water entered the ground, many of those stranded, including women, had taken shelter on the second floor of the farmhouses. They carried some food and water with them, which had started to run out,” an officer engaged in rescue and relief measures said.

Many of these stranded people were discovered when top police officers and administration officials took a boat ride deep into the flooded areas.

Several teams of the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force, the Provincial Armed Constabulary, the Noida Police, the Fire Brigade, the Noida Authority, and local village residents were engaged in rescue operations. “Most of the structures in the floodplains are illegally constructed. In recent years, we demolished over 250 farmhouses in anti-encroachment drives. A survey estimated the presence of around 500-600 more such illegal structures, against which action would be ensured in coming days,” Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari told PTI during an inspection of the site on Friday.

The IAS officer said that the owners of many of the farmhouses have moved court to get a stay on the demolition of their structures.

District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma said 550 hectares of land in Gautam Buddh Nagar got submerged in water due to the floods. People in the Jewar area of Greater Noida along Yamuna and those settled along Hindon were also impacted due to the floods, but the most affected were those in Noida.