With 34 more lives lost in the past 24 hours, the toll in Bihar floods increased to 153 on Saturday. Large parts of 17 districts in the State remained submerged with the number of people affected crossing one crore.
According to the Bihar disaster management department, 1,08,195 people in 1,688 panchayats under 156 blocks had been affected by the floods.
More than 60 lakh people were affected in Kishanganj, Araria, Purnea, Katihar, East and West Champaran districts. So far the highest number of deaths had been reported from the Araria district where 30 people had lost their lives. The toll in West Champaran was 23, Sitamarhi 13, and 11 each in Kisanganj, East Champaran and Supual. Casualties had also been reported in Madhubani and Katihar where eight and seven people had lost their lives.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a review meeting along with senior officials and issued orders for intensive airdropping of food packets in Kursakanta, Palasi, Sikti and Jokihaat in Araria and the Sugauli area in East Champaran. He also directed the Road Construction Department to restore the road from Kisanganj to Araria via Bahadurganj.
The situation in both Assam and West Bengal however improved with the number of districts affected coming down in both the States. Three more deaths were reported in Assam taking the toll in the second phase to 63. In the fist phase of floods, which had affected the State between May to July, 84 people had lost their lives.
The deaths in Assam took place in the Dhubri (1), Morigaon (1) and Golaghat (1) districts. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, 68,014 people were lodged in 328 relief camps as on Friday. The floods had so far affected 22,11,265 people. The number of affected districts had come down from 20 to 16 on Saturday.
In West Bengal, the situation improved in Uttar Dinajpur. According to the District Magistrate (DM) Ayesha Rani, at least 50,000 people were staying in about 400 relief camps set up in the district.
In Malda, large swaths of Ratua I, Harishchandrapur I and II, Gazole, Chanchal II, Bamongola blocks as well as Englishbazar and Old Malda Municipal area were still waterlogged.
Missing children
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights sought a report on children who went missing in the flood-affected districts from the DMs concerned and submit it within 15 days. It instructed the DMs of Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Alipurduar and Hooghly to set up a “working group” with the related panchayats, block development officers and district police officials to “closely monitor” the cases.
