Lakhs affected, shortage of aid material leads to anger, looting
MALDA The flood situation in north Bengal improved on Saturday with water receding in several rivers and the region receiving less rain. This, however, did not end the plight of lakhs of people marooned in various parts of five districts.
Train and bus services remained suspended. Scarcity of food and relief material led to agitation in many places. In North Dinajpur’s Itahar, angry villagers even looted relief material and a man was injured, allegedly, by a rubber bullet fired by the police.
In Malda, the grievance of flood-affected people turned into a political issue. Sanjay Sharma, a BJP councillor from Englishbazar municipality, alleged that his party supporters were denied relief because of their political affiliation. Malda witnessed the worst calamity in recent years.
“More than 200 people in Ward 9 are going through extremely difficult times. But the Trinamool-run municipality is not providing them with relief material and shelter. This is nothing but political vendetta,” alleged Sharma, who was elected from the Ward. He even wrote a letter to Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, chairman of the municipal body.
Ghosh neither accepted nor denied the charges. “Any discrimination in distribution of relief material is undesirable. I have taken note of the complaint. I am looking into it,” Ghosh said.
In Itahar, people alleged that police fired rubber bullets at them when they were protesting against the mismanagement in relief work and shortage of food. Bijoy Burman, a shopkeeper, was reportedly injured.
District police superintendent Shyam Singh and Sanjay Seth, an orthopedic surgeon at Raigunj district hospital, made contradictory statements on the injury Burman suffered. While Singh claimed police never opened fire, Seth said Burman’s wound was caused by a rubber bullet though he’s out of danger. BIHAR FLOODS TOLL 202 With 49 more deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll due to the unprecedented floods jumped to 202 on Saturday even as the waters spread to five more districts, enveloping 20 out of the 38 districts of the state.
Lakhs of people marooned in severely hit districts of Araria, Purnia, Kishangan, Katihar, East & West Champaran and Sitamarhi had been evacuated but thousands were reported to be out of reach of teams trying to evacuate them.
Officials feared the situation is likely to worsen, as all the major rivers maintained a rising trend even as flash floods caused by torrential rains spread to embrace newer districts, including Nalanda and Patna.