Rain, Sikkim flash flood raise alarm in Bengal

Taking stock of the situation at a meeting held at the state secretariat Nabanna, Banerjee asked Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and Home Secretary BP Gopalika to immediately send a team of senior officials to the flood-affected areas.

The leaves of a number of state government officials were also cancelled as a part of the measure to contain the flood situation in the state.

“I am personally monitoring the situation round the clock from home. We have already rescued 10,000 people from low-lying areas in the districts. Already SDRF and NDRF teams have been alerted. I will monitor the situation 24X7,” she reportedly said at the meeting.

Banerjee also directed Dwivedi to start a 24-hour control room for people to register their problems arising out of the flood.

The chief minister said that three unidentified bodies were found near the Teesta Barrage area in the Jalpaiguri district and they could be the victims of the Sikkim flash flood.

According to the state government, NH-10 which connects Sikkim’s capital Gangtok and Siliguri in West Bengal, has been completely washed away near the Likhuvir-Setijhora stretch. Immediate repairs on war footing will be taken up as and when the water recedes in Teesta, the statement said.
The chief minister also said that adequate relief camps have been opened in the state and urged the affected people to take shelter there. According to an official, 28 relief camps were opened in the northern districts of the state and 190 in the south.

“I am concerned about Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri (in north Bengal). I have asked several senior ministers and IAS officers to rush there to oversee rescue and relief operations. Close vigil is being kept to ensure no loss of life in the calamity,” the CM, who is recovering from an injury in her leg, said at the meeting.

The chief minister directed the DMs, SPs and BDOs to keep a constant watch on the situation in their respective districts.

She said that parts of South 24 Parganas district, the Sunderbans, and Sagar Island have also been affected by the floods.

Meanwhile, Governor CV Ananda Bose cut short his visit and will fly from Delhi Thursday morning to North Bengal to visit the flood-affected areas in the state.

Bose, who reached New Delhi from Kochi on Wednesday evening, will return to Kolkata early Thursday morning and straightaway travel to north Bengal to take stock of the flood situation there, a Raj Bhavan official told PTI.