Flood situation worsens in Orissa

The flood situation in West Midnapore district turned worse on Thursday with fresh areas inundated by Subarnarekha River, leaving nearly three lakh people marooned.

Besides Narayangarh, Sabang and Pingla blocks, which were flooded on Wednesday, about 150 villages in Dantan blocks II, and I about 60 km from Kharagpur, went under water last evening, District Magistrate N S Nigam told PTI here.

The gushing waters of the river have submerged a 6 km stretch from Sastalagar to Sonakhalaia on Orissa border on Kharagpur-Chennai NH 60, cutting off West Bengal from the southern part of the country. Thousands of trucks are stranded on the highway.

The army, pressed into rescue and relief operations in the district and in neighbouring East Midnapore since yesterday, has begun work at Dantan since morning, he said.

"We have asked for an airforce helicopter from Kalaikunda and we will begin airdropping food later in the day at Dantan when we get it," he said.

Four persons have died and three, including the former confidential assistant of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee were missing in the floods, while about 10,000 people were rescued from Narayangarh, Pingla and Sabang by the army and civil defence yesterday, he said.

The rains, lashing the area since Sunday, stopped this morning. It has rained a record 700 mm till yesterday against an annual rainfall of 1600 mm. The situation has been compounded by the discharge of 3.5-lakh cusec from Chandil-Galudih reservoir in adjoining Jharkhand.