Howrah: People moving out to a safer place as flood waters submerge their village in Udaynarayanpur sub-division in Howrah District, West Bengal on Thursday. PTI Photo(PTI7_27_2017_000267B)
Disaster Management Minister Javed Khan on Monday told the state Assembly that over 18.09 lakh people have been affected by recent floods in West Bengal. The minister was responding to a query from Trinamool Congress MLA Samir Kumar Jana on losses incurred due to heavy rainfall since the third week of July.
The minister said that West Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, East Burdwan and Bankura have been worst affected in the floods, while districts such as South and North 24 Parganas, Purulia, Nadia, Birbhum and Murshidabad were affected by heavy rain. Meanwhile, the Met department on Monday forecast heavy to very heavy rain in sub-Himalayan districts of the state for the next four days, and light to moderate rainfall in the southern districts, PTI said.
The sub-Himalayan districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next five days with the intensity of precipitation likely to increase in the latter days, PTI reported the Met department as saying. Districts in Gangetic West Bengal are likely to receive fairly widespread rains or thundershowers during the period, it said.
