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North Bihar in grip of floods

Traffic on a key highway badly hit

MUZAFFARPUR: Lakhs of people in parts of north Bihar are in the grip of flood due to heavy rains over the last two days and traffic on a key highway in the region has been badly hit, official sources said on Monday.

The swollen Bagmati river had inundated nearly 60 villages in Aurai block of Muzaffarpur district, Runnisaidpur block of Sitamarhi and about two dozen villages in Belsand block of Sheohar district, the sources said.

Vehicular traffic on the National Highway 77 has been paralysed with flood water overtopping the Muzaffarpur- Sitamarhi road at Kataunjha and several other places along the route, they said. Long queues of trucks stranded on the roadside were seen near Kataunjha where people were using countryboats to cross the waterlogged stretch.

According to Muzaffarpur civil surgeon Ram Nagina Prasad, three persons - Mira Kumar, Bhandari Rai and Ram Babu - have died of diarrhoea in Aurai block, where a few others were also taken ill. Steps have been taken to dispatch adequate medical relief in the area, Mr. Prasad said.

The three districts were virtually parched until a couple of days ago due to very scanty rainfall. When contacted, Under Secretary in the Relief Department in-charge of relief control room, S C Jha, said there was no cause for alarm and claimed the situation was under control. ``We expect the water to recede over the next 24 hours and the situation would normalise,'' he said, adding relief work has already started in the affected pockets.- PTI

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