More than 10 lakh people affected by Bihar floods

The flood situation in Bihar remained grim on Monday with more than 10 lakh people affected and thousands forced to flee their homes and take shelter on highrise embankments, national highways, railway lines and in schools and other buildings.

"Till date at least 15 people reportedly died after they drowned in flood water at different places in the state" officials said.

All the major rivers are in spate and posing serious threat to people living in some towns and hundreds of villages.

"The flood waters entered more than 1,000 villages under 500 panchayats and rising levels of most rivers threatened to inundate many others," an official in the state water resources department said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with officials on Monday carried out an aerial survey of the affected areas for the second consecutive day to take stock of a grim situation.

After aerial survey, Kumar directed officials to speed up rescue and relief operations in the flood affected areas. The chief minister also asked the state health department officials to arrange for medicines and DDT sprays to check outbreak of diseases once the flood water subsided.

Bhagalpur district has been the worst hit. Its BJP MP Shahnawaz Hussain demanded state government to provide adequate relief to people during his visit on Sunday.

Officials said that standing crops worth crores of rupees have been damaged and road communication at several places has been snapped in the district.

Other affected districts include Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Munger, Katihar, Araria, Purnia, Saharsa, Darbhanga, Madhepura and Saran.

The government has announced to provide 1 quintal food grain to the flood victims and directed district officials to open relief camps.

Five teams of the National Disaster Response Force were camping in the flood affected districts to provide emergency services to people.