Insufficient relief and rescue work responsible: Bengal CM

Midnapore, July 7 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today expressed concern at the for relief and rescue work which save resulted in a sorry state of affairs in the flood affected areas of East and West Midanpore districts.

Both the districts were the worst affected in the deluge that wrought havoc in the state since the past five days.

Talking to mediapersons here after reviewing the flood situation in various affected areas in the districts, Mr Bhattacharjee admitted that delay in repair of the river embankments had worsened the situation.

The districts received more than 300 mm of rainfall in the past few days, according to the Met department.

The chief minister also announced a relief fund of Rs 25,000 to each of the affected families along with sufficient relief materials, dry food, medicines and speed boats as demanded by the district magistrate of West Midnapore.

''I admit that we were unable to put much effort, especially for the repair of major embankments, to solve the post disaster problems,'' Mr Bhattacharjee added.

About 7,63,000 people were affected in West Midnapore alone and four people had died so far in the floods, he added.

Para-military forces had been deployed to carry out the rescue operation in Ghatal and Sabong areas, which were badly hit places in the district, the Chief Minister said.

Other affected areas were Narayangarh, Dantan, Keshiary, Pingla, Pataspur, Jamboni and Jhargram.

The Chief Minister also informed that thousands of people had been rescued and kept in temporary camps.

State Health Minister Surya Kanta Mishra alleged that the DVC authorities had not informed the government regarding the release of water from the dams, which added to the crisis.

When Asked why he had not visited any of the flood affected areas, the Chief Minister said that it would disturb the ongoing relief and rescue work there.

UNI