300 people
on the roof of a building overlooking the Manikarnika Ghat in the holy city of Varanasi on Tuesday. Varanasi has been forced to stop cremations along the banks of the sacred river Ganges because of the flooding. have died in eastern and central India and more than 6 million others have been affected by floods.
India’s holy city of Varanasi has been forced to halt cremations along the banks of the sacred river Ganges as deadly floods from monsoon rains hit parts of the country, an official said on Tuesday.
More than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes in recent days in northern Uttar Pradesh and neighboring Bihar states as rainswollen rivers burst their banks.
At least 300 people have died in eastern and central India and more than 6 million others have been affected by floods that have submerged villages, washed away crops, destroyed roads and disrupted power and phone lines, officials said on Tuesday.
Heavy monsoon rains have caused rivers, including the mighty Ganges and its tributaries, to burst their banks forcing people into relief camps in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
Government officials in Bihar, which has seen some of the worst flooding this year with almost 120 dead and more than five million affected, said the situation was serious.
“The floodwaters have engulfed low-lying areas, homes and fields of crops,” said Zafar Rakib, a district magistrate of Katihar, one of 24 districts out of Bihar’s 38 which have been hit by the deluge.
“We have shifted people to higher ground and they are being provided with cooked rice, clean drinking water, polyethylene sheets,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Floods have inundated the ghats or platforms on the edge of the Ganges in Varanasi, forcing families to cremate loved ones on the terrace roofs of nearby houses, Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Shailendra Pandey said.
“As the ghats are not available for cremation, the roofs of havelis (old mansions) and other old houses along the ghats are being used for cremation, but with great difficulty,” Pandey said.
Varanasi is India’s most sacred Hindu city where thousands flock to cremate relatives in the hope of attaining nirvana, before scattering the ashes in the Ganges.
Cremations have been affected in the Hindu holy city of Allahabad, also in Uttar Pra- desh, where pyres were being lit in nearby congested alleys, an official there said.
In flooded Banda district, a woman gave birth on a boat on Monday while on her way to a medical center, sparking criticism that local authorities provided little assistance.
A senior official said severe water logging meant it was extremely difficult to send medical help in time, leading the baby to be born in an inflatable dinghy amid the floodwaters.
“The child is fit and fine. We are extending all possible help to the family. Even if we had sent an ambulance there was no way it could have reached that place,” said police superintendent R. K. Pandey.
At least nine people have died in Uttar Pradesh state and another 15 in eastern Bihar over the past two days as floods hit rural areas as well as some cities, disaster management officials said.
A total of 130,000 people were sheltering in relief camps across the two states, officials said, and additional emergency workers have been deployed to help with rescue and relief efforts.
A senior Indian politician was widely mocked on Monday after photos showed policemen carrying him through ankle-deep muddy water while inspecting deadly floods in the country’s center.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state, was shown wearing crisp white trousers and white shoes and being carried aloft through the water in a field, trailed by his entourage.
The photo of a smiling Chouhan with his arms wrapped around the two officers made newspaper front pages and sparked an outpouring of ridicule on Twitter.
Most comments were lighthearted in a country where politicians are almost always flanked by a legion of fawning officials and security guards.
“Shame on #Shivrajsinghchouhan. So embarrassing #wetyourfeet my man,” Twitter user Jennifer Fernandes wrote.
“#Shivraj training Indian athletes for 400 m relay 2020 Olympics,” read another.
But Chouhan was also accused of abusing his position, with comparisons drawn to the treatment of British officials during colonial times.
A top government public relations officer defended Chouhan, saying it would have been dangerous for him to wade through the waters
Nobody knew if the water level would rise suddenly or if the ground below was slippery.” S.K. Mishra, state government spokesman
himself.
“Nobody knew if the water level would rise suddenly or if the ground below was slippery,” said S.K. Mishra. “There was also the danger of a snake or scorpion bite. He was desperate to meet the flood-affected people and the security guys could not have taken any chance.”
Floods triggered by monsoon rains have claimed hundreds of lives across India. In Madhya Pradesh at least 15 people have died after rivers burst and flooded villages, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Chouhan himself posted several pictures of his flood visit on Twitter but skipped the controversial one, while his office denied on Monday releasing the image.
An Indian TV journalist was fired in 2013 after he filed a report about deadly floods while perched on a survivor’s shoulders.