Relief packets air dropped in flood affected Bihar districts; no fresh casualty

Relief packets were airdropped in the flood-affected north Bihar districts where over a million people have been hit by the deluge, while flood-related deaths remained at 10 with no fresh casualties reported from anywhere in the state on Saturday.

A total of 1,940 relief packets were dropped in the 10 north Bihar districts from an Indian Air Force helicopter that took off from the Patna airport, a Patna district administration release said.

The relief packets containing two-and-a-half kg flattened rice, one kg gram, half kg jaggery, matchbox, and a packet of candles were packed at Sri Krishna Memorial Hall here for distribution among the marooned population.

Patna District Magistrate Kumar Ravi inspected the packaging of the relief items, it said.

Besides, the state government too will soon start disbursing Rs 6,000 as gratuitous relief (GR) to every flood affected family after identifying them.

The GR will be made available through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) in the state.

"We are all set to start disbursing Rs 6,000 as gratuitous relief to each of the flood-affected families. The list is ready and we will start disbursing the amount very soon," Disaster Management Departments Principal Secretary Pratyaya Amrit told PTI.

As per the Disaster Management Department's bulletin, a total of 10.61 lakh people have been affected by floods in 577 panchayats of 77 blocks in 10 districts.

The death toll in the floods stood at 10 in Bihar with no fresh casualties reported on Saturday, the bulletin said.

Thirteen teams of the NDRF and eight of the SDRF are involved in the rescue operations as part of which 95,859 people have been evacuated from the marooned areas so far, it said.

A total of 15,956 people are staying in 28 relief camps while nearly 1.53 lakh people were fed at community kitchens, the number of which rose to 422 on Saturday from 271 the previous day, the bulletin added.

The districts hit by floods are West Champaran, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, and Khagaria.

NDRF teams have so far evacuated around 4,000 people to safer places, NDRF 9th battalion Commandant Vijay Sinha said adding that NDRFs 13 teams have been deployed along with 102 rescue boats in 12 districts of the state, including the 10 flood-affected ones.

Sinha praised his team for carrying out rescue operations the previous night in the Gopalganj district which witnessed breaches at two places in Saran embankment, thus affecting thousands of people of several villages.

Several rivers such as Baghmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamlabalan, Lalbakeya, Adhwara, Khiroi, Mahananda and Ghaghra are flowing above the danger level.

Ganga is flowing below the danger mark at all locations including two at Gandhi ghat and Digha ghat in Patna, Water Resources Departments bulletin said.

Meanwhile, train services between Sugauli-Narkatiaganj have been suspended due to floodwaters touching the girder bridge between Sugauli-Majhowalia section in East Champaran district, East Central Railway (ECR) Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) Rajesh Kumar said.