Overflowing rivers inundate more areas

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 fresh 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. The remaining casualties have been reported from West Champaran and Muzaffarpur. 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 personnel involved in relief and rescue operations, for which 23 teams of the NDRF and some of the SDRF have been pressed into service.(PTI)