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It's official: Maharashtra flood toll is 1493
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August 29, 2005 18:49 IST

Maharashtra government on Monday submitted to the Bombay high court a list of 1,493 people who died in the recent deluge in various parts of the state and due to various flood-related diseases.

The list was submitted to the bench of Chief Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice S F Vajifdar in response to a public interest litigation filed by a group of TV and Bollywood personalities alleging total failure of the disaster management system of the state leading to floods.

The list contained the names of the deceased, their age, sex, address, cause of death and compensation amount paid to their kin and missing persons in the recent deluge and due to flood-related diseases.

The state government informed that a total of 1058 people died in deluge while 435 more lost their lives due to flood related diseases. Some 141 others were missing in the deluge.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has already filed an affidavit stating that 546 people died in the city, including 75 killed in landslide and 179 drowned in floods.

Counsel for petitioners Mihir Desai said the list of 42 NGOs submitted to the high court would now endeavour to ensure that the state help reached the flood-affected people.

After the hearing, the bench directed the state to update the information in the list by providing vital information as to whom the compensation of the deceased was paid.

With the list of deceased and missing persons submitted by the state to the court, the court said the NGOs should now make efforts to crosscheck whether the compensation amount has reached the affected persons.

The court also asked the NGOs to provide information about the name of persons to whom the state could pay the compensation amount for the death of their kin in the floods.

The court had earlier asked the state government to give priority to collection of garbage, as there was fear of greater disaster if epidemic breaks out after the deluge in the city.

The PIL alleged "total failure" of disaster management system and sought reply from authorities on steps taken by them to provide relief to victims of heavy rains in the state and measures adopted to tackle such calamity in future.

The petitioners prayed that the respondents be directed to file a detailed report to the court on the causes of deluge, losses caused due to it and steps to be taken to prevent its recurrence.

The PIL further prayed for a direction to the respondents to furnish a list of persons who died as a result of the floods and to put in place a mechanism to ensure that their kith and kin receive compensation.

Besides the Centre and state government, other respondents are BMC, Commissioner of Police, Railway authorities and Indian Meteorological Department.


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