UP flood toll touches 103; 10 dead in Maha rain havoc

New Delhi :  Uttar Pradesh’s flood woes continued as the toll rose to 103 while the situation improved further in Bihar with water receding from several areas and no report of any deaths today. The flood situation in Assam and West Bengal too improved significantly and the number of deluge-hit people went down.

Torrential rains and subsequent flooding claimed at least 10 lives in Mumbai and the neighbouring districts of Palghar and Thane since yesterday. Nine people were washed away in separate incidents in the city, while two lost their lives due to drowning in adjoining districts of Palghar and Thane. Another man was killed when a wall came crashing down on him in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar.

The toll in flood-related incidents in Bihar remained unchanged at 514 and people have started returning home as the waters were receding. Though 116 relief camps continued to operate, the number of people staying there dwindled to 61,495 as compared to 1.38 lakh yesterday, a state Disaster Management Department report said.

However in Uttar Pradesh, over 27 lakh people were affected by the deluge in the eastern parts of the state as raging waters of rivers emanating from Nepal caused havoc in vast swathes of land. Citing a report compiled till yesterday, the relief commissioner’s office here said around 60,000 people have taken shelter in relief camps in the affected districts. “The toll in the floods has reached 103 in the state, where 3,133 villages in 24 districts are inundated,” it said.

Army choppers, NDRF and PAC (flood) personnel continued relief and rescue operations round the clock in the severely affected areas of the flood-hit districts of the state. The flood situation in Assam continued to improve as the number of deluge-hit people in the state has gone down to around 79,000 in five districts against yesterday’s figure of over one lakh. The third wave of the devastating flood has so far claimed 74 lives in the state. The total number of people losing their lives in this year’s flood-related incidents stood at 158.

Currently, 217 villages and nearly 10,500 hectares of crop areas are still inundated, the Assam Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said. Authorities are running 45 relief camps and distribution centres in four districts, where 14,117 people have taken shelter, it said. West Bengal, which is yet to fully recover from the floods triggered by torrential downpour, is likely to receive heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places of sub-Himalayan parts of the state till tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the flood situation in the six districts of northern West Bengal was improving with no major rainfall reported from anywhere in the area. So far, floods have claimed 152 lives in the 11 districts of northern and southern parts of the state while over 10 lakh acre of agricultural land was inundated.

“The total loss has been estimated at around Rs 14,000 crore,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.