Flood situation worsens in Bihar; death toll rises to 253

The toll in Bihar floods rose to 253 today as the situation worsened further with more areas getting affected and around 1.26 crore people hit by the deluge.

Yesterday, the toll was 202 and the number of affected people was 1.21 crore in 18 districts.

No new district has been added to the list of flood-hit districts today.

Araria district accounted for 57 deaths alone, followed by Sitamarhi (31), West Champaran (29), Katihar (23), East Champaran (19) while 13 each have died in Madhubani, Supaul and Madhepura, a Disaster Management Department release said.

Eleven deaths were reported in Kishanganj, while Darbhanga accounted for 10 deaths, Purnea 9, Gopalganj 8, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur and Saharsa registered four deaths each while Khagaria and Saran accounted for three and two deaths respectively, it said.

As many as 4.21 lakh people have been shifted to 1,358 relief camps in different parts of the state, the release said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar undertook an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur and Patna districts.

He was accompanied by state Water Resources Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and the chief minister’s Secretary Atish Chandra, an official release said.

Twenty-eight National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams comprising 1,152 personnel with 118 boats are involved in rescue and relief operations.

Besides, 16 teams of the State Disaster Response Force comprising 466 personnel are helping people in the flood-hit areas with 92 boats, it said, adding 630 Army personnel are also assisting in relief and rescue operations with 70 boats.

The release said the number of community kitchens have been raised to 2,569 from yesterday’s 1,879. The number of flood-affected people who are being served at these kitchens have also increased from yesterday’s 3.72 lakh to 4.92 lakh, it said.

The local MeT office said Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea are likely to witness generally cloudy sky with the possibility of rain or thundershower tomorrow.