Flood situation deteriorates, toll touches 75

Patna, Aug 3 (UNI) The flood situation in Bihar further deteriorated as the embankments of rivers breached at several places causing inundation of 50 more villages in several districts and leaving at least one crore people affected and about 75 people dead.

With reports of five more casualities today, the toll has risen to 75.

A report from Motihari said four people were swept away in the district while in Sitamarhi, one casualty was recorded due to drowning.

Large parts of Muzaffarpur district were inundated after a sudden breach in the embankment of the Burhi Gandak river this morning, rendering more than 200,000 people homeless.

District Magistrate Prahlad Thakur told UNI that water started gushing into the township, inundating several low lying areas. A number of country-made boats were pressed into service to rescue the marooned people.

Simultaneous efforts were also being made to plug the breaches and ferry people to safer places, the DM said. Efforts would also be made to reach succour to the affected people on a priority basis. So far, about two thirds of the town were flooded, he added.

A report from Samastpiur report said breach in embankments on the Kareh and Bagmati rivers caused inundation of about a further 50 villages of the district affecting thousands of people in the area.

Kalyanpur, Varisnagar, Shivaji Nagar, Hasanpur, Rosera and Vithan blocks were the worst affected in the flood fury, the sources said.

A report from Begusarai said about 30 panchayats of six blocks were affected by flooding due to breach in embankments on Burhi Gandak. The flood water had submerged the Rosera-Begusarai road disrupting movement of traffic.

According to reports received from Bettiah, more than three lakh people were affected in 183 villages in West Champaran district.

Jogpatti, Nautan, Bariya, Majhaulia and Sikcha blocks were the worst affected.

Darbhanga, Katihar, Purnea, Bhagalpur were among the other worst affected districts due to the from flood onslaught.

Meanwhile, as per reports of the Central Water Commission, all major rivers the Ganga, Bagmati, Budhugandak, Kosi, Mahananda, Punpun, Sone, Ghaghara, Kamlabalan and Adhwarad rivers were flowing above the danger mark at several places in the state and their embankments developed breaches at several points inundating hundreds of villages.

The road and rail communication in the flood hit area of North Bihar was badly affected and people were forced to take shelter on national highways, platforms and embankments.

UNI