Over 4 lakh people moved to safety, water receding in Sangli &

Over four lakh people have been moved to safety from the flood-hit parts of Maharashtra in the last five days, including 3.78 lakh from the worst-hit Kolhapur and Sangli districts where the situation showed signs of improvement on Saturday as the water levels started receding slowly, but are still above the danger marks.

Officials are now hoping that it doesn't rain heavily in the next 72 hours in Kolhapur and Sangli districts to allow water levels to recede completely.

The situation is likely to improve further as five lakh cusec of water was being discharged from the Almatti dam in neighbouring Karnataka.

The backwaters of Almatti dam on the Krishna river fall in Maharashtra.

In view of the flood water levels not falling, Fadnavis had asked his Karnataka counterpart BS Yediyurappa to increase the water discharge to 500,000 cusec.

The discharge from Koyna (Satara) and Radhanagari (Kolhapur) dams stood at 77,987 cusec and 7,112 cusec, respectively, a state government ...