Grim situation in flood-ravaged Bihar

Patna: The overall flood situation in Bihar continued to be grim on Wednesday with major rivers in spate breaching banks, inundating new areas and displacing thousands of people, officials said.

The worst affected areas were Kishanganj, Araria, Purnea and Katihar of Seemanchal region and Supaul, Madhepura and Saharsa of Koshi region.

The flood situation has also worsened in East and West Champaran in the last 24 hours with the Gandak river breaching embankments in Bagaha, an official said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi took stock of the situation as they conducted aerial surveys on Wednesday in West Champaran district.

It was the third consecutive day of aerial surveys undertaken by the Chief Minister in different flood-affected districts.

He surveyed Kishanganj, Araria, Purnea and Katihar on Monday, followed by East Champaran, Sheohar, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and Madhubani districts on Tuesday.

The state’s Disaster Management Department has confirmed that the death toll due to the flood situation has risen to 56 and has voiced fears it might increase.

“It may rise further as information takes time to reach here,” an official said.

Unofficial reports put the death toll at over 60.

People living in low-lying areas have been advised to move to higher places as heavy rain continued.

“The flood situation in Bihar will continue to be grim following rising water levels of rivers and incessant rain,” an official from the Met department said.

Major rivers, including the Koshi, Mahananda, Gandak, Bagmati and Ganga, are in spate and some rivers have breached their banks and embankments, officials said.

“With heavy rainfall in Bihar as well as in the catchment areas in Nepal, the water level of these rivers has been rising,” an official told IANS.

The government has launched massive relief and rescue operations with teams from the army, air force as well as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Bihar State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) swinging into action.

“We have deployed four army teams, 22 NDRF and 15 SDRF teams along with hundreds of our own officials in relief and rescue operations in flood-affected districts,” state Disaster Management Department principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit said.

An official said over 6.9 million people in 1,070 village councils in 133 districts were affected by the floods in Bihar.

Of them, more than 248,000 people have been evacuated to safer places by rescue teams. The state government has set up 343 relief camps in which 93,149 people have been put up.

Thousands of people have taken shelter either on high-rise school buildings, village council buildings or other government buildings. Many continue to wait for relief teams to arrive along national highways under the open sky.

The state administration said at least five more districts including Samastipur and Khagaria face threat of flooding.

“Flood waters have entered in some new areas and are likely to create panic among people,” the officials said.

The state government has cancelled the leave of doctors and heath department officials in all flood-hit districts.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has again spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested assistance.

Railway stations in Kishanganj, Katihar and Jogbani in Araria were flooded, leaving scores of passengers stranded. Eighteen trains have been cancelled since Sunday.

According to officials, crops worth millions of rupees have been affected and road links to several places have been snapped.

Reports reaching Patna said flood waters have submerged National Highway 104 in Sitamarhi, National Highway 31 in Kishanganj and National Highway 327 in Araria, an official added.

3.3 million displaced in Assam

Guwahati/Dhaka: The flood situation in Assam deteriorated as the second wave of deluge affected 25 of its 32 districts claiming 10 more lives, besides displacing 3.3 million people.

The Army was assisting the civil administration in rescue and relief operations as the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries were flowing above their danger levels snapping surface communications in many parts of the north eastern state.

The toll in northern West Bengal due to floods and heavy rains rose to 12 as rail and road connectivity with the rest of the state continued to be in shambles.

The flood situation has gone worse in Malda, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur districts. Many parts of Malda were flooded by the Mahananda river while the water of Kulik river in North Dinajpur district has inundated parts of National Highway 34, that is considered as the lifeline of road connectivity between south and north Bengal.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, 29 people have died in the last few days in floods caused by heavy rainfall, officials said.

The floods have affected almost a third of the country, said Reaz Ahmad, Director General of Bangladesh’s Disaster Management Department. Around 90,000 people were evacuated to 1,151 shelters while 1.6 million were affected by the floods, according to the official.