West Bengal: Flood situation turns grim

[Shiloh]

Source: http://india.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=136106

West Bengal: Flood situation turns grim
The flood situation in West Bengal turned grim. With the army continuing rescue and relief operations Indian Air Force helicopters began air dropping food to stranded people. The floods have killed 25 and affected 21 lakh people..
CJ: Kumar Sarkar


WITH THE flood situation turning grim chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met the district magistrates of East and West Midnapore and asked then to arrange for distribution of relief without political discrimination. Bhattacharjee said 25 had died and 21 lakh people have been affected by the floods following incessant rain in the state. Two columns of the army are carrying out relief and rescue operations. The state government has allocated Rs. 6 crore for relief.

Helicopters from the Kalaikunda airbase in Midnapore districts carried out sorties on Friday dropping food packets. Vast areas were flooded with thin strips of muddy roads visible. Villagers made a mad rush along the mud tracks to collect the food packets and provisions being dropped. Some packets fell into the water and people swam after them.

Giving an account of the flood damage the chief minister said 15,000 houses were totally destroyed while 35,000 houses were partially damaged. Dry food packets and water pouches were air dropped. Fifteen blocks in East Midnapore have been flooded with 16 lakh people affected. The chief minister said 60 camps have been opened and 2.5 lakh people have been provided shelter. There was need for Rs. 50 lakhs and 1000 metric tones daily in the two flooded districts. Most roads were under water and farmlands have been inundated.

The chief minister has instructed the state's health department to dispatch halogen tablets and bleaching powder to prevent outbreak of diseases. The department has also been asked to provide ample supplies of snake venom.

Large number of cattle have been swept away in the flood waters. The chief minister had called an all-party meting to discuss the flood situation. While the Congress participated the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee did not attend.

With train services on the South Easter Railway suspended, thousands of tourists from Bengal are stranded in the Puri sea resort in Orissa. The state's transport minister Subhas Chakraborty announced that 40 to 50 busses are being arranged to bring back the tourists. The exercise will begin on Monday after the flood waters recede some what. Hundreds of trucks are stranded on the highways in the two districts which are contiguous to Orissa.

Army personnel fished out 14 bodies on Thursday from the flood waters in West Midnapore's Narayangarh. Among the dead was Gautam Basu, former confidential assistant of the Tranamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. He had been swept away along with two others and their Toyota Innova car.

According to the state government West Bengal has received the entire season's rainfall in three days.

The Jharkhand government has been blamed for the floods. The neighbouring state released 6.90 lakh cu sec of water from the Subarnarekha barrage on Wednesday and Thursday without informing Bengal. As such the West Bengal government was unable to take any precautions. The state's chief secretary is taking up the matter with the Jharkhand government.

The Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta admitted that the situation is worrisome but with the rains petering off water levels are receding.

[Shiloh]

Re: West Bengal: Flood situation turns grim

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/22/stor...2255670900.htm

Flood situation eases a little in West Bengal

Kolkata: The death toll in floods in West Bengal has risen to 27, with 18 people dying in the worst-affected Paschim Medinipur and the others in Purba Medinipur.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee held a review meeting at the Secretariat here on Saturday. Minister for Relief Mortaza Hussain, who attended the meeting, said that over the past week West Bengal received 750 mm of rain, which was 75 per cent of its annual precipitation. ?The situation was now a little more under control.? While further heavy rainfall was forecast, at least for now rivers were flowing below the danger level.

The rivers in spate washed away cars and the rail track caved in on major stretches, snapping rail link between the south and the east. Many trains on the South Eastern Railway continued to remain cancelled.
27 lakh people hit

Mr Hossain said four columns of army personnel were assisting in relief operations although airdropping of foods packets and other materials was stopped. In the two districts in Medinipur, 27 lakh people in 32 blocks were affected. As many as 225 medical teams were working in the affected areas, where halogen tablets were being distributed to prevent the outbreak of any water-borne disease.

Altogether 1,136 relief camps were opened. While claiming that relief materials had been despatched to most of the affected areas, the Minister admitted that difficulties were being faced in the areas of Pingla, Sabong, Mukhberia, Potashpur and Bhagabangola, where water was swirling all around. In some areas in Purba Medinipur, which were located in a trough area, the flood situation aggravated after fresh showers in the morning.

To questions about relief not reaching certain areas, he told journalists that the just-concluded panchayat elections proved a hurdle. For, in many places panchayat boards had not been formed to handle relief operations at the ground zero level. Relief was now being distributed through the local administration.

3 children die in wall collapse

Patna Special Correspondent reports:

Incessant rain in Bihar took its toll in Nalanda district, where three children were killed and seven others injured in wall collapse on Saturday. The children were playing outside their house at Ghauspur village, when the wall collapsed. Of the injured, three have been referred to the Patna Medical College Hospital as their condition is stated to be serious.

The State government has announced a compensation of Rs. 1 lakh to each bereaved family and Rs. 50,000 to the injured.

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Re: West Bengal: Flood situation turns grim

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryP...n+WB+districts

Flood situation improves, diarrhoea outbreak in WB districts

Press Trust Of India
Kolkata, June 24, 2008
First Published: 17:05 IST(24/6/2008)
Last Updated: 17:10 IST(24/6/2008)

The flood situation has eased considerably in both West and East Midnapore districts in West Bengal with major rivers flowing below the danger mark, but the outbreak of diarrhoea in some of the worst-hit areas has become a cause of concern.

Medical teams have already been rushed to attend to the diarrhoea patients 2,995 in West Midnapore and 252 in East Midnapore districts and necessary steps are being taken to prevent any further spread of the disease.

The state's irrigation minister, Subhas Naskar, told reporters in Kolkata on Tuesday after briefing Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee regarding the latest flood situation that normalcy was fast returning to both the districts, though vast areas of Potashpur and Bhagabanpur in East Midnapore district were still heavily waterlogged.

The death toll due to floods remained at 30 with 30.74 lakh affected in the two districts.

The chief minister has asked to identify the number of breached embankments and take steps to repair the same in the affected areas, Naskar said.

Of the four army columns stationed in East Midnapore, two have been withdrawn and airdropping of food had stopped since yesterday, he said.

The state government has so far sanctioned a sum of Rs 22.63 crore for relief and reconstruction purposes in the two districts.

Meanwhile, relief minister Murtaza Hussain and civil defence minister Srikumar Mukherjee today visited the worst-affected areas of Sabong.