Rescuers rescuing men from the flood-affected area of Bahadurpur in Patna following heavy rain on Monday — AFP PATNA, Sept 30 (Agencies): Heavy rains have killed at least 113 people in India's Uttar Pradesh(UP) and Bihar states over the past three days, officials said on Monday.
Flood waters swamped a major city, inundated hospital wards and forced the evacuation of inmates from a jail.
India's monsoon season that begins in June usually starts to retreat by early September, but heavy rains have continued across parts of the country this year, triggering floods.
Dozens of boats were pressed into service on streets overflowing with gushing rain water in Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, after torrential downpours far stronger the normal.
At least 27 people have lost their lives across the state and another 93 in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh since Friday, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Indian Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Sunday that Bihar and Central government will do anything to save people of Patna from flood.
He also chaired a meeting over the flood situation in Bihar's Patna.
He met with MLAs and District Administration officials. He said that all gates of Farakka Dam have been opened in view of massive water-logging in many parts of Bihar including Patna. With more rain predicted, weather experts say September could end as the wettest in more than a hundred years.
"Patna alone has recorded some 226 millimetres (8.9 inches) of rainfall since Friday," Bihar disaster response official M. Ramachandru said.
Photos showed patients lying on hospital beds in dirty rain water at the state-run Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Patna.
It has also been raining heavily in southern India and in the western state of Gujarat.
Rising water levels forced authorities to shift 900 inmates from a prison in eastern Ballia district in Uttar Prodesh, police officer Santosh Verma said.
Bihar's capital city of Patna, home to around 2 million, has been badly hit, with waist-deep flood waters across many streets, and entering homes, shops, and even the wards of a major hospital. In some parts, authorities deployed boats to rescue residents.
"The rains have stopped but there is waterlogging in many areas," Bihar's Additional Secretary in the Disaster Relief Department Amod Kumar Sharan said.
In its bulletin on Monday, India's Meteorological Department said the intensity of rainfall over Bihar was very likely to reduce.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
