By IRNA
New Delhi : Over 500 people have died in the current spell of floods in Bihar with fresh reports of 23 deaths from six flood-hit districts on Monday as nearly 20.5 million people continue to reel under the impact of floods in 20 districts.
23 more deaths were reported from Darbhanga (09), Samastipur (04), Begusarai (02), East Champaran (04), Madhubani (02) and Muzaffarpur (02) during the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 501, Indian national TV news portal reported here quoting Bihar’s Disaster Management sources.
Darbhanga alone had so far accounted for the largest number of 98 deaths, followed by Samastipur (84), East Champaran (78), Muzaffarpur (51), Khagaria (50) and Begusarai (20).
Rest of the deaths were reported from flood-hit Supaul, West Champaran, Madhubani, Nalanda, Madhepura, Vaishali, Sitamarhi and Katihar districts.
Nearly 20.5 million people of 9,864 villages under 225 blocks were affected by floods in 20 flood-hit districts where standing crops worth over Rs 701.93 crore in 15.88 lakh hectares of land had been damaged, they said.
Altogether 6,965 boats have been deployed for providing relief material to the affected people and to evacuate the marooned villagers to safer places, sources said.
Around 9,93,470 marooned people had so far been evacuated while 1302 relief camps, 349 cattle camps and 538 medical teams were working round-the-clock to provide relief aid to the flood-hit people, sources said.