13 districts submerged; situation improves in north Bengal; 14 trains cancelled
PTI: The flood situation continued to be grim in Bihar and Assam on Tuesday while a break in the rains offered respite for the northern districts of Bengal.
The toll in Bihar rose to 56 with 69.81 lakh people affected across 13 districts of the State. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made his second aerial survey of flood-hit areas on Tuesday.
The special secretary said 1.61 lakh people had been evacuated to safer places. Of them, 85,949 have been put up in 343 relief camps in different places.
Earlier in the day, addressing the Independence Day programme here, Mr. Kumar said the flood situation was caused by incessant rains in Nepal and some districts of north Bihar continues to be grim with rivers in the area flowing above the danger level.
Mr. Kumar also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promptly sending the NDRF and Army to the affected areas.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated as the second wave of rains deluged 25 of 32 districts claiming 10 more lives, besides displacing 33 lakh people.
The Army was assisting the civil administration in rescue and relief operations as the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries were flowing above their danger levels snapping surface communications in many parts of the State.
Trains cancelled
East-Central Railway (ECR) chief public relations officer Rajesh Kumar said no train was travelling beyond Katihar towards the north east as flood waters have inundated the railway tracks.
Thousands of passengers were stranded as train services from Kolkata to north Bengal and Assam remained suspended for the third consecutive day.
Fourteen express trains from Howrah, Sealdah and Kolkata stations were cancelled for the day with flood waters flowing above railway tracks in the North East Frontier Railway system, an Eastern Railway statement said.
Breather for Bengal
In neighbouring West Bengal, after a respite from the rain on Tuesday, the flood situation in the north, including in the two worst-hit districts of Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri, registered a slight improvement. Seven persons have died in rain-related incidents so far.
Over 28,000 flood victims have been rescued or evacuated from various affected parts of the country till now, the NDRF said.
