Bihar floods claim 76 lives, affected over 77 lakh people

Altogether 76 people have lost their lives in floods spread over 23 districts in Bihar since June this year, State Disaster Management department secretary Vyasji said on Thursday.

About 77.40 lakh people were affected by the floods which inundated over 2,060 villages this year, Vyasji said.

Sixty-eight thousand people were evacuated to safer places by Disaster Response Force personnel and others during the floods which had so far damaged standing crops worth over Rs 56 crore, he said.

A total of 14,884 houses, the value of which was estimated to be Rs 17.49 crore and public property worth Rs 25.78 crore were also damaged by floods this year. Vyasji further said that 176 relief camps were opened in the flood affected areas where 20,893 flood-hit people took shelter, he said.

He said that the state government have so far distributed 2,51,243 quintals of foodgrains and Rs 6.24 crore in cash among the flood-hit people.

 Recently NDRF teams evacuated 1132 people, trapped in flood water of river Sone following rise in its water level in Aurangabad, Rohtas and Arwal districts recently, to safer places, he said.