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Villagers asked to go to elevated places

K. Balchand

Efforts on to prevent further breach in Kosi; Manmohan Singh to visit flood-hit areas

— Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

MAROONED: A goods train stranded at a station that is completely cut off by floods, in north Bihar on Wednesday.

PATNA: With flood waters swamping more areas in Bihar, the race is to prevent the breach in the Kosi embankment from widening further. The State government is hoping to complete the task in the next couple of days with the cooperation of Nepal, but the weatherman sounded pessimistic fearing more rainfall in the catchment areas.

Heavy rain could spell disaster, with officials fearing that the 2.5-km breach could become as big as 10-km long.

The floods brought down two transmission towers in Kataiya and Narpatganj early on Wednesday, throwing several parts of Nepal into darkness.

The government has sounded a red alert and asked the people to vacate their villages and go to elevated places. But many of them are refusing to leave their homes.

The situation in Madhepura continues to be bad, with most parts of the township having been inundated. At least one person was killed in a bid to grab meagre supplies at the relief centres.

A boy was killed in Supaul when food packets dropped from the air fell on him.

With five more deaths in Madhepura and four in Saharsa, the death toll has risen to 55.

Central aid sought

New Delhi Special Correspondent reports:

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought a central assistance of Rs.1,000 crore and one lakh tonnes of foodgrains, preferably rice.

He said Dr. Singh would conduct an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas on Thursday.

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