By IANS
Lucknow : Fresh rains wreaked further havoc in large parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh Monday as at least three Nepal-fed rivers overflowed their banks, marooning hundreds of rural homes and pushing up the death toll to more than 200.
Six people were killed in different incidents of house collapse in Gorakhpur since Sunday, while around 30 have perished over the past 10 days, official sources said.
According to state relief commissioner Umesh Sinha, “heavy downpour in the upstream region of the Ghaghra, Rapti and Rohin rivers as also continued rain in Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Basti and a few adjoining districts led to this second round of floods”.
About 1.5 million people remain affected by the floods in 15 districts, of which eight – Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Maharajganj, Bahraich, Gonda, Kushinagar, Basti and Siddharthnagar – were the worst hit.
About 600,000 hectares of agricultural land have been inundated while nearly 200 villages were still marooned, the relief commissioner said.
He said: “Appropriate relief measures were in place and the Provincial Armed Constabulary had been pressed into service in the badly hit parts of Gorakhpur and Azamgarh districts.”