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North Bengal floods claims three lives, over 5-lakh hit
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SME Times News Bureau | 14 Aug, 2017
Rail and road communication was severely hit and over five lakh people
affected in northern West Bengal with major rivers in spate as the flood
fury triggered by heavy rains claimed three lives with one person
missing, officials said on Sunday.
The deaths were reported from
the worst-hit Cooch Behar district, where 100 out of 128 gram panchayats
were inundated following incessant monsoon rains since Friday.
One person was missing in North Dinajpur district, with eyewitnesses saying the victim was drowned.
Around
2.87 lakh people were affected in the deluge in Cooch Behar, and
aanother two lakh in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts. Over 50,000
were hit in Malda, North Dinajpur, Darjeeling and South Dinajpur
districts.
The district administrations have opened over 700 relief centres - 550 of them in Cooch Behar alone - to shelter the homeless.
The
red signal has been hoisted at a number of places with the Teesta,
Torsa, Raidak, Kaljani and Mansai rivers flowing among the danger mark,
as the inclement weather continued.
Cooch Behar was virtually cut
off from the rest of India, with vehicular and train movement coming to
a stop following inundation of railway tracks and national and state
highways.
Cooch Behar, Toofanganj and Dinhata blocks were worst affected.
The
National Highway 31 was under water at Maruganj of Toofanganj block,
while the Mandai has breached embankment in ward seven of Mathabhanga
town.
Speedboats and country boats have been deployed while
National Disaster Response Force personnel were engaged in rescue
operations in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts.
In
Jalpaiguri district, the Jaldhaka diver caused inundation at Gajong
under Dhupguri block. Eight municipal wards in Dhupguri town were also
flooded.
The Teesta submerged Gajoldoba, while the guard walls of National Highway 31 at Neelampalli developed cracks.
In Darjeeling district's Siliguri sub-division, most parts of Naxalbari and Matigara blocks were under water.
Train
commuters had a harrowing time, with a large number of mail, express
and other passenger trains cancelled, stopped, rescheduled or
short-terminated.
The 12343 Up Darjeeling Mail, that left Sealdah
for New Jalpaiguri on Saturday night, was stopped at Murarai in the
early hours of Sunday, and after an agonizing ten hour wait, was brought
back to Sealdah.
A Northeast Frontier Railway release said the
situation aggravated on Saturday night when rain water submerged tracks
near Dalkhola, Barsoi, Sudhani stations and the main line connecting NE
India with rest of the country got blocked with water under a bridge
near Kishanganj station flowing over danger level.
Monday's 15903 Dibrugarh-Chandigarh Express and 15636 Guwahati-Okha Express have been cancelled, the release said.
Twenty mail, express and other passenger trains including 12423 Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express have been cancelled.
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