Centre did not do enough for MP flood relief: Chouhan

Indore, Sep 6 (UNI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today alleged that the Centre did not adequately compensate this state for flood loss.

''A central team has already estimated the damage but so far only Rs 99 crore have been obtained from the state's share of the Calamity Relief Fund,'' Mr Chouhan told reporters at the local airport.

Taking about his conversation with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Home Minister Shivraj V Patil for additional assistance yesterday in New Delhi, Mr Chouhan said the state MPs were staging a sit-in in the national capital today.

Countering allegations that the amount obtained so far had not been utilised, the Chief Minister said back, ''the first priority is providing relief not indulging in politics.'' Life was thrown out of gear due to overnight rain at several places in western Madhya Pradesh while a youth was killed and six injured in weather-linked incidents at Ratlam. The season's cumulative death toll is 144.

Shamsher Singh (23) died after a tree collapsed this afternoon.

Regional Meteorological Centre Director D P Dubey said that a low-pressure area in the vicinity of western Madhya Pradesh would lead to downpours in Bhopal, Hoshangabad, Jabalpur, Indore and Ujjain divisions over the next 24 hours. Schools were declared closed in Ujjain today.

In Malwa region's Jhabua district the Narmada, Mahi, Anaam, Pampawati, Munaar, Hathni and other rivers were in spate.

Khandwa Collector Arun Tiwari said 17,000 cusecs were being released from the Indira Sagar dam.

UNI Team-AC SI KP2010