By IANS,
Lucknow : As many as 50 more people have died across Uttar Pradesh, a senior official said Friday, as the number of deaths on account of torrential rains and floods shot up to 710 since June 1.
“Most of the deaths have occurred due to collapse of hutments and even brick houses in rural areas after getting inundated in the monsoon,” Uttar Pradesh principal revenue secretary Balwinder Kumar told IANS.
Kumar, who heads the overall relief operations during natural calamities, said: “We have set up 274 relief camps across the 21 flood-affected districts.”
He said that special rescue teams deployed across thousands of affected villages had evacuated 10,742 marooned people.
As many as 1,700 personnel of the state armed constabulary have been pressed into service to assist in the relief operations carried out with 184 motorised boats and 88 ordinary boats.
Special medical relief camps have been established in affected areas. “We have taken care to guard against epidemics which usually follow such heavy rains and floods.”
Kumar said that over 70,000 people had been vaccinated.
While cooked food packets were air-dropped in marooned villages, rice, wheat and salt are being distributed free to poor homeless people in other affected areas and relief camps.