22 people die in Bihar flood
Patna, July 29: Five more people died today in flooding in Bihar, taking the death toll to 22, while 17.85 lakh have been hit in 10 districts as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today made an aerial survey of the five flood-hit areas.
Kumar made the survey of flood affected areas of Bhagalpur, Katihar, Purnea, Kishanganj and Araria districts.
He held a review meeting with District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police of Purnea division to take stock of pace of relief and rehabilitation work in the inundated areas.
Flooding in Bihar is mainly due to heavy rainfall in Nepal's catchment areas as a result of which water from the swollen rivers are discharged towards the neighbouring areas in Bihar.
The Disaster Management Department had put the death toll at 17 yesterday. Five more deaths were reported today taking the toll to 22, it said.
The department officials said 17.85 lakh people residing in 1,630 villages in 49 flood-affected blocks of 10 districts have been rendered homeless.
The 10 districts which are affected by the flood are Purnea, Kishanganj, Araria, Darbhanga, Madhepura, Bahgalpur, Katihar, Saharsa, Supaul and Gopalganj.
Around one lakh hectares of land have been affected by the floods caused due to rise in the water levels of Mahananda, Bakhra, Kankai, Parmar and Kosi rivers of the state.
Around 3.88 lakh people have been displaced while 1.36 lakh people have taken shelter in the 357 relief camps run by the government.
Crops,
spread
over
50,000
hectares
of
land,
valued
at
Rs
2.04
crore
have
been
damaged
by
the
flood.
Meanwhile,
NDRF
(National
Disaster
Response
Force)
said
its
nine
teams
have
been
pressed
into
service
to
rescue
people
in
most
sensitive
flood
areas.
NDRF
teams
are
engaged
in
the
most
flood-affected
Araria,
Purnea
and
Kishanganj
districts
to
carry
out
rescue
work.
An
NDRF
team
has
been
sent
to
West
Champaran
and
Gopalganj
districts.
Besides,
SDRF
teams
have
also
been
deployed
in
the
flood
affected
districts
especially
in
the
three
districts
of
Araria,
Purnea
and
Kishanganj.
15,000 packets of dry food have been sent to Purnea from Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Saharsa, Madhepura for distribution among the flood affected people.
The dry food packet includes - 500 gm of sattu, 2 kg of chura (bitten rice), 250 gm sugar, small salt packet, candle, match, box, a torch, powder milk among others.
PTI