Seven persons died in various rain-related incidents during the past 36 hours as heavy showers coupled with discharge of water from dams worsened the overall flood situation in Bihar.
Two persons died in Khajekalan area on Monday evening after a tree fell on them while another victim died in wall collapse at Rajepur in East Champaran district, official sources said.
A man and his grandson were killed after a tree fell on their hut at Dilwarpur village of East Champaran district, while a woman died due to wall collapse at Bholobigaha village in Jehanabad district last night, they said. Another wall collapse on Sunday claimed the life of an eight-year-old boy in Rohtas district.
An alert was sounded on Monday as the overall flood situation worsened following heavy rains in the catchment areas of the rivers and the discharge of 9.50 lakh cusec of water from Bansagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh and Rihand Dam in Uttar Pradesh.
Five districts -- Rohtas, Arwal, Patna, Aurangabad and Bhojpur -- were inundated by the discharge of water.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has directed the state water resources and disaster management departments to be on high alert and intensify relief and rescue operations.
The government has cancelled leaves of all engineers till October 15 and postponed the state-level meeting of chief engineers, scheduled on September 29-30, to October 15-16.
The government has also sounded alert in Vaishali, Chapra, Samastipur, Katihar and Bhagalpur districts as the water level of Ganga is rising due to heavy discharge into the Sone that merges with Ganga near Haldi-Chapra.
Relief and rescue operations have been taken up and a team of the National Disaster Response Force has pressed into service.
According to Central Water Commission sources, Ganga is flowing 86 cm above the danger mark at Gandhi Ghat in Patna, while Sone at 81 cm above the danger level at Koilwar and 26 cm at Maner in Patna.
Meanwhile, incessant rains affected normal life in Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Motihari, Bhagalpur and Chapra towns, besides Patna.
Cyclone coupled with heavy rains destroyed over 200 houses in Srinagar block of Purnia district on Monday morning, injuring at least six persons, officials said.
Patna recorded 14 mm of rainfall till 1730 hours on Monday.
