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Death toll rises to 64 in West Bengal

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Fresh rainfall in south Bengal has led to fears of the situation worsening in Purbo and Paschim Medinipur districts of West Bengal .

The death toll in flood-related incidents in the two districts has risen to 64, the State’s Finance Minister, Asim Dasgupta, said here on Monday.

The State government has taken steps to ensure that there is no discrimination in the distribution of relief materials to the flood victims. Nearly 3.3 million people have been affected and medical teams have been sent to the flood-hit areas to prevent the outbreak of any disease, he added.

Rail links along the east coast between the city and south India that had been suspended following damages to a bridge in Paschim Medinipur will remain so till July 10 and not be resumed from Tuesday as announced earlier, an official of the South Eastern Railway said.

The State government has so far sanctioned Rs. 64.6 crore for relief and restoration work It has also requested the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) authorities to resort to a minimum discharge of water from its reservoirs following warnings by the meteorological office of heavy rainfall in the region.

The Left Front committee, at a meeting, came down heavily on the DVC authorities for recently releasing, in one go, water from its reservoirs in Jharkhand without intimating the government. This had led to flooding in the two districts.

“The volume of water discharged from the reservoirs was far in excess of what it should have been and the State government was not informed of it,” Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front Committee, said. The death toll would not have been as high had the discharge been phased out and the State authorities alerted.

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