In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where 43 people have died and over one million are affected, schools were closed in the cities of Varanasi and Allahabad as both the Ganges and Yamuna rivers crossed danger levels and flood waters continued to rise.
Advertisement
Several people have also been killed in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in the last 24 hours, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. “I hope the situation in the affected areas normalises at the earliest, .” the Prime Minister said.
But excessive rains this year have caused the Ganges and its tributaries to rise above the danger level in about 20 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Torrential rains have lashed western parts of the state, affecting normal life in Guna, Rajgarh, Shivpuri, Mandsour, Ujjain and other parts of the state.
In addition to engaging 10 teams from its 9th battalion based at Bihta, the NDRF has mobilised six teams from Chennai and five from Bathinda in Punjab to assist the Bihar government in meeting the challenges due to the swelling waters of the Ganga and the other rivers, DIG, NDRF SS Guleria told reporters here.
Meanwhile, 56 flood rescue teams of NDRF were operational in various flood prone areas of the different states to assist the respective state administration in rescue and relief work. We can see submerged homes, inundated swathes of land and people wading through chest-high water.
Singh had a telephonic conversation with chief ministers Akhilesh Yadav (UP), Harish Rawat (Uttarakhand), Nitish Kumar (Bihar) and Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) this morning and took stock of the flood situation in their respective states. Many areas, specially the riverine belt of 12 districts are badly reeling under water in the state. This has caused river waters to rise to unsafe levels. The marooned people were being evacuated to safer places.
The districts witnessing flood-like situation in Bihar included – Patna, Vaishali, Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar – a Disaster Management Department statement said.
In Madhya Pradesh, too major rivers, including Retam, Chambal, Shivna, Kshipra and Sindh are in spate.
According to the MET office, south-west monsoon has been active over Eastern Uttar Pradesh and light to moderate rain or thundershower occurred at isolated places over the western parts.
Advertisement
India’s National Disaster Response Forces (NDRF) have been deployed to the five states, rescuing more than 33,000 people stranded in remote villages.
