Patna: Flood situation remained grim in Bihar on Monday as waters from overflowing rivers, mostly those originating in Nepal, inundated more areas leaving 55 lakh plus residents of over a thousand villages affected by the calamity.
According to a bulletin issued by the disaster management department, no other loss of life was reported from the 14 flood-hit northern districts and the death toll stood at 13, stable for more than 48 hours.
Nonetheless, the number of affected people grew by more than two lakhs since the previous day and reached 56.53 lakh.
The number of distressed panchayats has risen to 1082 from 1059 on Sunday.
Darbhanga has been the worst hit, being surrounded by three of the rivers in spate Bagmati, Kamala Balan and Adhwara.
The district has accounted for seven casualties and 16.89 lakh of its residents, spread across 196 panchayats, have been hit by the floods.
Also read: Bihar Floods LIVE: Embankment breaches in Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga; 23 NDRF teams deployed
The remaining casualties have been reported from West Champaran (four) and Muzaffarpur (two). Other districts hit by the floods are Sitamarhi, Supaul, Sheohar, Kishanganj, Saran, Gopalganj, East Champaran, Khagaria, Samastipur, Siwan and Madhubani.
Till date, 4.18 lakh people have been evacuated by the personnel involved in relief and rescue operations, for which 23 teams of the NDRF and some of the SDRF have been pressed into service.
"Our men are conducting recce in all the 14 districts and so far they have rescued more than 10,700 people", Vijay Sinha, commandant of 9th Battalion of NDRF stationed at Bihta near Patna said.
According to the disaster management department, 19 relief camps have been set up in four districts Gopalganj (11), East Champaran (two), Khagaria (one) and Samastipur (five). Altogether 17554 were at present taking shelter at these.
Addressing the state assembly earlier in the day, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that more relief camps would be set up if the need arose.
Besides, more than nine lakh people were being fed at 1358 community kitchens set up for flood victims, the disaster management department said.
Muzzafarpur inundated, no help from administration
In Muzaffarpur, the continuous flow of water from the Budhi Gandak river continues causing massive devastation in Meenapur block.
Due to the relentless flow of floodwater, the Chainpur-Mohammadpur connecting road has lost a chunk and gone underwater, cutting off the area with a population of nearly 20,000 from the city.
The movement of vehicles on the road has completely stopped.
In serious situations like these, the residents of the area claim that the administration has not done anything and by the looks of it seems like, they are waiting for people to die.
"There is no arrangement of any type of toilet, no arrangement of temporary stay. The men will somehow manage, what will the women do," a man rued.
Darbhanga: Pregnant woman waits hours in labour before NDRF personnel rescue her
Archana Devi, nine-months pregnant woman from Mahanoli village who went into labour on Monday had to wait hours before NDRF personnel reached her for help.
In the tense situation, the family went into a frenzy and it was the neighbours who dialled the NDRF control room calling for help. However, on the way, the team's boat got punctured and another back-up boat was used to reach the ailing woman.
After the team reached the woman, she was taken to a suitable place from where she was taken to a hospital. The whole process took four hours, during which Archana fainted several times due to the labour pains.
Laliteshwar Singh, husband of the pregnant woman said that due to not having a boat they had to suffer a lot and despite the flood situation getting worse with each passing day the government couldn't make appropriate arrangements.
"The NDRF team was god-sent and saved my wife, giving some relief," he said.
