Flood Situation Remains Grim in Bihar, More Than 55 Lakh People Affected

Flood situation remained grim in Bihar on Monday as waters from overflowing rivers, mostly those

originating in Nepal, inundated more areas leaving 55 lakh plus residents of over a thousand villages affected by the calamity.

According to a bulletin issued by the disaster management department, no fresh loss of life was reported from the 14 flood-hit northern districts and the death toll stood at 13, stable for more than 48 hours.

Nonetheless, the number of affected people grew by more than two lakhs since the previous day and reached 56.53 lakh.

The number of distressed panchayats has risen to 1082 from 1059 on Sunday. Darbhanga has been the worst hit, being surrounded by three of the rivers in spate-Bagmati, Kamala Balan and Adhwara.

The district has accounted for seven casualties and 16.89 lakh of its residents, spread across 196 panchayats, have been hit by the floods.

The remaining casualties have been reported from West Champaran (four) and Muzaffarpur (two).

Other districts hit by the floods are Sitamarhi, Supaul, Sheohar, Kishanganj, Saran, Gopalganj, East Champaran, Khagaria, Samastipur, Siwan and Madhubani.

Till date, 4.18 lakh people have been evacuated by personnel involved in relief and rescue operations, for which 23 teams of the NDRF and some of the SDRF have been pressed into service.

"Our men are conducting recce in all the 14 districts and so far they have rescued more than 10,700 people", Vijay Sinha, commandant of 9th Battalion of NDRF stationed at Bihta near Patna said.

According to the disaster management department, 19 relief camps have been set up in four districts Gopalganj (11), East Champaran (two), Khagaria (one) and Samastipur (five). Altogether 17554 were at present taking shelter at these.

Addressing the state assembly earlier in the day, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that more relief camps would be set up if the need arose.

Besides, more than nine lakh people were being fed at 1358 community kitchens set up for flood victims, the disaster management department said.