Choppers Drop Relief Packages in Flood-affected Areas
Patna: Aug. 5, 2007
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Choppers Drop Relief Packages in Flood-affected Areas
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Photo by Shashi Uttam |
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Flood relief officials in Bihar, using four helicopters on Sunday, dropped over 4,000 relief packages in the flood affected areas including Darbhanga, Madhubani, and West Champaran amidst news of let up in flood situation in many areas, officials in Patna said on Sunday.
Returning to the base three times to replenish relief stocks in the choppers, officials dropped more than 23,000 kilogram of food and other essential items in flood affected areas even as authorities, at the behest of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, prepared to send more relief materials by road, officials in Patna said on Sunday.
More than 150 labors and volunteers, under the close supervision of Emergency Management chief secretary Manoj Srivastava, Patna District Magistrate B. Rajendra and other senior officials, were engaged round the clock in preparing relief packages at Patna's Sri Krishna Memorial Hall, reports said.
Meanwhile, 200 jawans from Danapur Cantonment, using two army motorboats, were providing relief works in Begusarai and Samastipur where situation remained grim despite temporary let up from rain.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who earlier air-surveyed Samastipur, Begusarai, Motihari, and other flood affected areas in Bihar, appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Bihar to get a true feel of the devastation caused by this year's flood in the state.
He also appealed to the Prime Minister to provide central relief in Bihar where the government was over-extended in carrying out flood relief operations.
While flood situation in Purnia, Darbhanga, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, and Sitamarhi remained grim, reports of recession in water level in all rivers in Saharsa, Supaul, and Madhepura were received even as hundreds of thousands of villagers in those districts remained marooned in small patches of lands spared by the flood.
Traffic was partially restored on Darbhanga-Muzaffarpur NH-57 after repair of the road on many places on Sunday, officials said.
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