Rs 650-cr flood control project for Bengal

The long-pending drainage basin project involving the Kaliaghai, Kapaleswari and Baghai rivers in the flood-prone East and West Midnapore districts in West Bengal has got the green signal.

The Rs 650.38-crore project for the two districts, which are struck by calamity almost every monsoon, was recently inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, who had taken a keen interest in its implementation.

The Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, was also present on the occasion.

The State's Irrigation Minister, Mr Manas Bhuniya, said, “The project will provide immense benefit to nearly 30 lakh people in the two districts by preventing inundation of their land.”


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Thousands displaced in Assam flash floods

Thousands displaced in Assam flash floods

AUGUST 17TH, 2011

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Guwahati: At least seven people were swept away and thousands displaced by flash floods in Assam Monday, officials said, adding that army soldiers and Indian Air Force helicopters were being deployed to rescue trapped villagers, officials said.

A government spokesperson said heavy rains triggered massive flooding in the eastern Dhemaji district, about 500 km from Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

“According to preliminary reports, about 40 villages have been hit by floods with an estimated 25,000 people displaced. There are reports of at least seven people swept away by sudden burst of flooding,” Dhemaji District Magistrate M.S. Manivannan told journalists.

Television images beamed over local satellite channels showed a family of four – father, mother, and two sons – atop a tree trying to escape the surging floodwaters in village Tokobari of Dhemaji district and the tree collapsing and being washed away in front of the camera.

The four people were swept away by the swirling waters and locals managed to rescue the father and mother, but the two teenaged sons disappeared, literally swallowed by the raging flood waters.

Officials said a big stretch of a railway track and the National Highway was swept away by the floodwaters, snapping road and rail links between Dhemaji and the rest of Assam. (IANS)