Evacuated village of 400 spends Diwali in temporary shelters without electricity

Beed, Oct 21 (PTI) It is a dark and silent Diwali at Kapildharwadi village in Maharashtra's Beed district this year as its entire population of 400 has been living in temporary shelters for the last two weeks.

The village of 80 families, about 16 km from Beed, was evacuated in the second week of October after large cracks developed in the ground, prompting a visit by a Geological Survey of India (GSI) team.

The GSI team from Pune visited the village on October 8 and declared it a `geo-dimensional hazard zone', prompting evacuation.

The people were shifted to the sprawling premises of the Manmath Swami temple and a school.

There is no electricity in the area for the last two weeks, locals said.

In addition to fissures in the ground, four houses also developed major cracks while three other houses collapsed, said Beed tehsildar Chandrakant Shelke.

The district administration has finalised nearby `gairan' land (government land earmarked for grazing) for rehabilitation, and the process will begin after legal formalities are completed, he said.

As per the GSI team, the area lacks natural drainage.

Notably, the Beed district received 170 percent of its average rainfall this year. PTI COR KRK