Water recedes ; flood situation improves

Midnapur, Jun 19 (UNI) Flood waters have started receding in two Midnapur districts, after leaving a trail of death and destruction, official sources said today.

The toll so far has risen to 15 and 1.6 lakh people were marooned in a its two-day spell of surging waters from rivers and torrents.

West Midnapur District Magistrate N S Nigam said nine people perished in the last two days.

He said about one million people in 26 blocks have been affected.

Standing crops in 61000 hectars of land were lost. Property loss was being estimated.

About 1.5 lakh people were rescued today by the troops and local administration with the help of peiople and rehabilited to 84 camps in the district.

Dryfood packets were airdropped at Sabang, Sakrail and Mohanpur today.

Contradicting officials' data of relief operation, Congress party MLA from Sabang claimed that neither a single food packet was airdropped nor any other relief material sent there.

He said he will meet the Chief Minister at Kolaghat tomorrow and bring to his notice the total chaos in distributing relief by the District Administration.

In East Midnapur district, the situation also started improving as all big rivers started receeding.

Four lives were lost so far in the district as claimed by Niranjan Sihi, Sabhatipati Zilla-Parsad.

Unconfirmed sources, however, put the death toll to six.

About eight lakh people in 6 blocks have been affected in the deluge.

Airdropping of food packets have started at Patashpur and Bhagabanpur, the two most affected blocks, Mr Sihi said. About 8000 people have been rescued so far.

In Bhagabanpur, relief materials were looted. Police had to resort to mild lathi charge to keep away the people.

UNI XC PC RL KN2047