No boats to reach islands,doctors put admn in dock

Finally,the health department hired 13 boats on Saturday to ferry the medical teams to remote areas of Gosaba and Pathrpratima blocks,he said. The boats,however,could not reach many places due to high tide. Besides,there is no place to set up medical camps in washed out villages,Sarkar added.

According to the health department,medical teams could only attend camps in the Gosaba schools,where villagers have taken refuge. But many villagers living on the embankments and roads have not been attended so far.

District Magistrate of South 24-Parganas Khalid Ahmed said there was a shortage of boats after the storm but the district administration has provided support to the medical teams for visiting the islands.

According to an estimate of the district health department,the cyclone had affected 408 villages in 89 gram panchayats of the district and 263 shelter camps have been set up in the district. At present 305 medical officers and personnel,including doctors and nurses are working across the district.

Sakar said the health department has received information about the outbreak of diarrhoea in a few areas but it was not so serious.

According to the health department,the Gosaba block,which has 2.5 lakh people,is witnessing an acute shortage of drinking water as saline water of the Bay of Bengal has inundated 11 of 13 gram panchayats.

Ahmed said the supply of drinking water has improved but it is still not adequate. Till now 2.5 lakh litres of drinking water has been supplied to the Gosaba block.

Sources in the Basanti and Gosaba blocks said the administration has not been able to remove the carcasses of animals even after a week. Only teams have been set up at the block level to begin burying the carcasses floating in the water. The district magistrate said the panchayat samitis and the block administration will bury the animals soon.

In a related development,a team from the Central health department visited Kultali block to assess the situation.