North Bengal floods: Over 80,000 affected

Siliguri, July 17 (IANS) Over 80,000 people have been affected by floods in West Bengal's three northern districts of Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Cooch Behar. However, with rainfall ending and the river water levels dipping, the situation is likely to improve, an official said Tuesday.

"With the decrease in rainfall, the water level of major rivers has been receding. The flood situation in the districts is likely to improve over the coming days," North Bengal Flood Control Authority chairman Narayan Chatterjee said.

As per district officials, over 80,000 people have been affected by the incessant rain and landslides causing flood like situation in North Bengal. While, over 22,000 people have been affected in Jalpaiguri, a similar number of persons have been affected in Darjeelingdistrict. In Cooch Behar, over 40,000 people have been affected.

The administration has set up nearly 60 relief camps across the affected areas and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Army personnel have been deployed to carry rescue and relief works.

State Irrigation Minister Manas Bhunia, who visited the affected areas, said the administration was keeping a close vigil on the embankments across the bank of Teesta and other major rivers.

Over 2,000 homes across the three districts have been fully or partially damaged rendering several thousand people homeless.

With reports of land slide coming from Kalimpong and Kurseong in Darjeeling districts several areas remained completely cut off with the administration unable to send relief materials there.

Flood-waters recede, but fear remains  

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 17 JULY: Though the floodwaters have started receding, irrigation officials fear many areas will be freshly inundated because of the continuous rain.
"The flood situation may worsen if the region receives heavy rains because all rivers are in spate and the rate of receding is very slow," said North Bengal Flood Control Commission Chairman N C Chatterjee.
"The weather forecast says the region ~ including Sikkim, Bhutan and the Darjeeling Hills ~ will receive heavy to very heavy rain in coming 48 hours."
The irrigation and waterways department decided to continue the yellow signal for all major rivers in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar to alert local people. The red signal continues for the Teesta River, for unprotected regions.
State irrigation and waterways minister Manas Bhuniya and state forest minister Hiten Barman visited the Khayerkata flood-affected zone in Jalpaiguri's Nagrakata block today.  They faced flood victims, angry over the poor quality of flood protection works, who raised questions about the efficacy of the flood management works on the bank of the Kuchi Daina River. The embankments next to the Kuchi Daina were washed away, and a large swathes of slum areas ~ including Khayerkata ~ were inundated.
Dr Bhuniya also visited the Chamurchi area and interacted with flood victims and slum dwellers.
He expressed his department's helplessness, saying it had failed to the control floodwaters owing to a lack of prior information about rainfall from the uncontrolled catchments in Bhutan.
"It would be very difficult to control floodwaters from rivers originating in Bhutan if we do not get prior information about rain from the neighbouring country," Dr Bhuniya said.
A team from the National Disaster Response Force was pressed into service in Maynaguri block in Jalpaiguri to pacify flood victims so that they can take shelter in relief camps. Flood victims had taken shelter on top of their houses to guard their belongings.
The Army has started constructing a Bailey bridge over the Kuchi Daina River today. A temporary bridge over that river collapsed owing to a second spell of flood at Kayerkata village. Two trained elephants ~ Surya and Fulmati ~ were pressed into service to ferry students to appear for their ongoing unit tests.  According to the district administration, a total of 13,458 people are in the relief camps in the flood-affected areas of Jalpaiguri district. A total of eight flood-relief shelters were opened.
Villages alleged that gram panchayat members had not distributed relief materials properly and many genuine flood victims were deprived. Administrative officials said that they would not be able to distribute materials door-to-door. “Relief materials will be distributed properly if they come to the flood shelters,” they said. The flood control commission chairman, Mr Chatterjee, said: "We have estimated the value of the damage caused due to the floods in the basins of the rivers Teesta, Mahananda, Jaldhaka, Raidak-I and II, Sankosh, Rheti-Sukriti, Daina and other rivers. We have sent the report on it to the disaster management department.”

Sikkim cut off after landslide
Sikkim has been cut off from the rest of the country following landslides on NH 31A at Tenth Mile Tarkhola in West Bengal last night. Official sources said today the landslide occurred at 11 p.m. last night between Rangpo on Sikkim border and Melli in West Bengal.