India

North Bengal Floods kills 3, over 5 lakh affected after heavy monsoon rains

North Bengal Floods kills 3, over 5 lakh affected after heavy monsoon rains

Flood in North Bengal region claimed lives of three persons and have affected over 5 Lakh people. Fury was triggered by Heavy Monsoon rains with major rivers intensifying the cause. All the three deaths have been reported from Cooch Bihar district which is one of the worst hit. 100 out of 128 gram panchayats were affected in Cooch Behar. One person is missing in North Dinajpur, where few eyewitness is claiming of victim drowning.

Around 2.87 lakh in Cooch Behar, 2 lakh in Japlpaiguri and Alipurdar district and 50,000 in Malda, North and South Dinajpur and Darjeeling have been affected. The district administrations is said to have opened over 700 relief centres , 550 of them alone in Cooch Behar for sheltering the homeless.

The district administrations have opened over 700 relief centres – 550 of them in Cooch Behar alone – to shelter the homeless. The red signal has been hoisted at a number of places with the Teesta, Torsa, Raidak, Kaljani and Mansai rivers flowing among the danger mark, as the inclement weather continued. Cooch Behar was virtually cut off from the rest of India, with vehicular and train movement coming to a stop following inundation of railway tracks and national and state highways. Cooch Behar, Toofanganj and Dinhata blocks were worst affected. The National Highway 31 was under water at Maruganj of Toofanganj block, while the Mandai has breached embankment in ward seven of Mathabhanga town.

Speedboats and country boats have been deployed while National Disaster Response Force personnel were engaged in rescue operations in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts. In Jalpaiguri district, the Jaldhaka diver caused inundation at Gajong under Dhupguri block. Eight municipal wards in Dhupguri town were also flooded.

The Teesta submerged Gajoldoba, while the guard walls of National Highway 31 at Neelampalli developed cracks. In Darjeeling district’s Siliguri sub-division, most parts of Naxalbari and Matigara blocks were under water.

Train commuters had a harrowing time, with a large number of mail, express and other passenger trains cancelled, stopped, rescheduled or short-terminated. The 12343 Up Darjeeling Mail, that left Sealdah for New Jalpaiguri on Saturday night, was stopped at Murarai in the early hours of Sunday, and after an agonizing ten hour wait, was brought back to Sealdah.

A Northeast Frontier Railway release said the situation aggravated on Saturday night when rain water submerged tracks near Dalkhola, Barsoi, Sudhani stations and the main line connecting NE India with rest of the country got blocked with water under a bridge near Kishanganj station flowing over danger level. Monday’s 15903 Dibrugarh-Chandigarh Express and 15636 Guwahati-Okha Express have been cancelled, the release said. Twenty mail, express and other passenger trains including 12423 Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express have been cancelled.

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