Multiple agencies have joined hands to provide succour to people stranded in the flood-hit areas of Punjab, with over 7,600 evacuated so far after water levels in Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers and seasonal rivulets swelled due to heavy rain in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
To take stock of the situation, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann chaired a meeting with top officials and constituted a high-powered committee comprising three top officials of the state to supervise the relief and rescue operations on a day-to-day basis in the flood-hit districts.
Mann said 17 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have also been deployed for rescue measures so that the flood-affected people can be rescued.
The chief minister also said that Indian Army personnel have already been deployed in the five flood-hit districts, where they are conducting rescue operations in coordination with the administration.
As many as 7,689 people have been evacuated and shifted to safer places so far, Special DGP (law and order), Arpit Shukla, said.
The officer said Punjab Police has set-up relief camps in the flood-affected areas where food and medicines are being provided to the evacuated people, along with cattle fodder for the bovines.
"Drones are being used to trace people for evacuation, and also to deliver food packets and other essential items," Shukla said.
Twenty choppers of the Indian Army have been stationed in the state to evacuate and shift people to safer places, he added.
The worst-affected villages are in Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Fazilka, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar districts, while heavy rain triggered a flood alert in Patiala on Friday.
Chairing the meeting, Chief Minister Mann said that heavy flow of water from the hilly areas have created havoc in the state, with the Ravi river receiving 14.11 lakh cusec of water till date, the highest discharge the state ever received.
When severe floods hit the state in 1988, the figures were 11.20 lakh cusec.
The situation remained grim in many areas, where overnight rain compounded the trouble even as the flood water refused to recede.
Heavy rain also lashed Chandigarh on Thursday night.
The Patiala district administration on Friday issued a 'high alert' for several low-lying villages along the Ghaggar river following heavy rainfall in its catchment area and the opening of floodgates at Sukhna lake in Chandigarh.
Various Central agencies have been working in coordination with the state authorities for the past few days to evacuate stranded people from the inundated areas, officials said.
On the request of the district administrations, the Army, Border Security Force (BSF), Indian Air Force (IAF), and NDRF have responded to the crisis situation, and are undertaking large-scale rescue operations, they said.
Helicopters from BSF's air wing, in coordination with the IAF and the Army, are undertaking multiple sorties to evacuate the stranded troops from the inundated border outposts.
BSF speed boats have also been deployed in the rescue efforts, the officials said.
In Tarn Taran, BSF troops supported villagers in plugging a breached anti-flood 'bundh', preventing further damage and saving lives.
According to the force, the BSF has been carrying out rescue and relief operations under the leadership of Atul Fulzele, IG, Punjab Frontier.
Since Wednesday, troops of the Army's Panther Division have been operating in the flood-hit Ramdas-Ajnala belt.
The troops of the Army's Golden Arrow Division are also carrying out rescue operations in some of the flood-ravaged villages.
The IAF has scaled up its rescue operations since Wednesday, with Mi 17 and Chinook helicopters conducting multiple sorties to rescue those stranded in Dera Baba Nanak and Pathankot.
Meanwhile, the residents of the Mukerian sub-division in Hoshiarpur on Friday urged the authorities to immediately plug the breaches in the embankments of Chakki Khad, a tributary of Beas, to prevent further devastation as the Pong Dam continued to flow above the danger mark.
Officials said the dam's water level stood at 1,391.98 feet on Friday morning with an inflow of 53,000 cusecs and outflow of 1,00,614 cusecs.
By the evening, the level climbed to 1,392.28 feet, still above the danger mark of 1,390 feet.
The inflow had also risen to nearly 72,000 cusecs, while the outflow into the Shah Nehar barrage touched around 1.10 lakh cusecs.
Hoshiarpur Deputy Commissioner Ashika Jain visited the Rara Mand area near a bridge on the Beas river Friday, and reviewed the strength of the guide bund constructed alongside it.
The flood situation in Ferozepur district remained grim with nearly 16,000 acres of crops inundated and 62 villages badly affected.
More than 2,500 residents have so far been rescued from the flood-affected villages, while 13 relief camps have been set up to shelter the displaced families, officials said.
Political leaders cutting across party lines on Friday toured several flood-hit districts and interacted with the affected people.
AAP ministers Lal Chand Kataruchak, Hardeep Singh Mundian, Balbir Singh, Laljit Singh Bhullar and Tarunpreet Singh Sond were among those who visited the flood-hit villages.
Senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha also visited the affected areas in Gurdaspur and Dinanagar.
From the opposition, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring visited the flood-hit areas in Ferozepur, while SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal visited the affected villages in Amritsar's Ajnala.
Punjab Congress MLAs have decided to contribute their one month's salary to the Chief Minister's Flood Relief Fund, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said on Friday.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Mann said his entire Cabinet, including himself, and all the AAP MLAs have decided to donate one month's salary towards the flood relief efforts.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.