By IANS
New Delhi : Several parts of Orissa and West Bengal were submerged in flood waters due to torrential rains in the last few days even as people in north India were looking skyward Saturday to get some relief from sweltering heat.
The flood situation in southern West Bengal was grim as thousands of houses were washed away in four days of heavy rainfall affecting over 763,000 people.
As the state government called in the army, the death toll in flooding touched 27. Authorities said the situation was compounded with about 225 mm of rain in a single day in some areas.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya toured the worst hit West Midnapore district and held meetings with officials on providing aid to the homeless.
Rain has stopped but the situation is grim in many places, especially at Ghatal, Sabang and Datan in the district. Relief material provided so far is not adequate, the chief minister confessed.
"I am going back to Kolkata and sending more relief, including dry food and rice, immediately," Bhattacharya told reporters in Midnapore.
Around 600,000 people in over 500 villages in north Orissa's coastal Balasore district were marooned as flash floods triggered by heavy rains over the last five days worsened Saturday.
Torrential rains due to a depression over the Bay of Bengal triggered flash floods across Balasore, some 200 km from state capital Bhubaneswar. Three major rivers – Jalaka, Subarnarekha and Budhabalanga – have swelled, district collector A.C. Padhiary said.
Officials said the situation has become grim and likely to worsen, as the water level in the rivers was very high Saturday. Some villages were submerged in four feet water. Most of the cropland was also under water, with farmers staring at colossal losses.
"My house has been washed away and we are now on the streets without getting any relief. One government official came to us Friday but he did not provide any food," Harendra Behera, a resident of Kharidpipal village, said.
The situation is grim in Bhogarai, Baliapal, Basta and Jaleswar blocks of the district, officials said. They confessed that communication has been totally cut off to Baliapal and Bhogarai blocks.
After taking stock of the flood situation and relief work in West Bengal, Bhattacharya said: "About 25,000 people have been rescued in West Midnapore but more needs to be done. Three columns of the army have been deployed there."
The state government has released Rs.120 million for relief and sought the help of the army and air force to rescue thousands of marooned villagers in West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Hooghly, Bankura, Howrah, Burdwan and Purulia districts.
Though the monsoon has officially entered north India, there has been little rain in the region in the last couple of days.
A dry spell continued over large parts of Uttar Pradesh with people, especially farmers, waiting for monsoon showers in many places. But the weatherman did not hold out any hope of rain in the next few days.
The weather remained hot and humid with an overcast sky and the maximum temperature ranged between 35 degrees and 38 degrees Celsius in most parts of the state.
"Only after a couple of days is there a possibility of full-fledged monsoon rains," said state met department director K.P. Kulshreshtha.
"While Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are reeling under heavy downpour and even floods, monsoon has generally been dry in Uttar Pradesh this year so far," he said.
Kulshreshtha said: "A system developing over the north of the Bay of Bengal can bring good rain to Uttar Pradesh. If the low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal moves westward, it will bring rain to the state and beyond. But if it turns south like the earlier weather systems this year, then the state will have to wait for another system to develop."
In the Indian capital, there was no respite from hot and humid conditions as the played hide and seek behind clouds early in the day. There was a brief storm and a couple of millimetres of rain, but then it was back to square one, with residents preferring to stay indoors to avoid the tough weather.
On Saturday, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (one degree above normal) and a minimum of 27 degrees, one notch above normal.
While Lucknow and Hissar (Haryana) recorded a maximum of 38 degrees each, Jammu, Amritsar and Chandigarh witnessed 35 degrees even as Patiala in Punjab recorded a maximum of 38 degrees Celsius.