With the death of 25 more people, toll in Uttar Pradesh floods rose to 53 as many rivers continue to flow over danger mark posing threat to more than 1,500 villages thus prompting administration to call in army to evacuate people.
Principal secretary Revenue K.S. Atoria said that 53 people have died of flood in last few days with Bahraich remaining the worst affected. Army has been called in several places to assist the local
administration. Around 4 million people are affected due to the floods while Bahriach, Balrampur and Shravasti districts remained cut off from rest of the state. Flood waters had entered Balrampur town inundating a large number of low-lying localities, official said National highway-28, connecting lucknow and Bahriach has been shut down due to floods.
Army officials here said MI-17 helicopters have been pressed into service. They have rescued at least 100 people from the flood hit areas. A report from Faizabad said Saryu river was flowing above the danger level by 86 cm at Ayodhya and it has inundated around 30 villages. Flood waters have also entered the low lying areas of Cantonment, officials said. The situation in Azamgarh has also been deteriorating with flood waters inundating low lying areas of the city. “The rising rivers have threatened more districts in the state,” official said. Besides, the situation in Bahriach is also alarming. Rescue teams were finding it difficult to reach the marooned people.
According to reports, thousands of people in Shravasti district were rescued by the army and PAC jawans, who were trapped on the roofs of their houses since Saturday. They have also rescued 35 school children from a roof top of a primary school. Officials said schools and colleges have been closed in all the flood-hit areas of the state. Though the state government claimed that it was distributing relief material among the affected people, many said they had been starving for the past two days. Thousands of flood-affected people blocked roads in Shravasti district in protest against lack of relief material and shouted anti-government slogans. “Choppers were used to drop food packets among the affected people,” Ataria said. The Central Water Commission said that almost all the major rivers, including Ganga, Ghaghra, Rapti, Sharda, Ramganga, Saryu and some smaller ones have been rising and many of them were flowing well above the danger marks
at several places, sources said.
Meanwhile, state government has set up a round the clock flood control room in the state capital but people in the flood hit areas alleged that there was no response from the control room.