People flee a village in Madhubani district on Thursday. Picture by Ravi Bhaskar

Muzaffarpur, Sept. 29: Rivers Bagmati, Lakhandai, Gandak and Budhi Gandak are still flowing above the danger mark in the districts of north Bihar despite a lull in rainfall in the past 36 hours. A large part of Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sheohar districts are completely under water because of an overflowing Bagmati and its subsidiary waterways.

The flood situation has further aggravated because of the collapse of embankments on the Bagmati in Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sheohar districts. The strong current has washed away standing crops of paddy and maize, spread over hundreds of acres of agricultural land in these districts.

According to reports reaching the divisional headquarters here today, the turbulent Bagmati has played havoc in Aurai, Katra, Gaighat, Runnisaidpur, Pipra, Sheohar, Sursand and Bazpatti areas of the three districts.

The flood situation in Aurai, Katra and Gaighat blocks of Muzaffarpur is still grim. National Highway 77 on the Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi road remained closed for the past 24 hours.

Floodwater has inundated Basantpur in Runnisaidpur block of Sitamarhi district. As a result, hundreds of commercial vehicles on their way to Nepal are stranded on the road. A few of them are also stuck in the river water alongside the road.

Divisional commissioner (Tirhut) S.M. Raju said he has alerted the district magistrates of Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sheohar in view of the flood.

Nearly 400 villages in the three districts are completely inundated. Marooned villagers are being taken to safer zones and relief work among the displaced families was being done on a war footing. Block officials are camping in the flood-prone areas to monitor the relief and rescue programme.

Muzaffarpur district magistrate Santosh Kumar Mall inspected the flood-ravaged Sonepur village of Katra block of the district and took stock of the flood situation. The DM directed the circle officer, Sudhir Ranjan Sharma, to prepare a list of the flood-affected families and start distributing relief materials.

Meanwhile, people’s lives have become miserable owing to incessant rain in Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Madhubani and Sitamarhi districts. All low-lying areas of the district were inundated after heavy rainfall two days ago.

However, floodwater invaded some panchayats of Jalley, Kamtaul, Singhwara and Keoti blocks of the district after the embankments of Khiroi river breached at five different points yesterday. Villagers took shelter at railway platforms, high ground and roads.

District magistrate and collector R. Laxmanan told The Telegraph: “We are supervising the flood situation in different blocks today. Right now, we have visited Jalley block, where 13 panchayats are severely affected by inundated water, while four panchayats in each of the Keoti and Singhwara blocks are affected by floodwater.”

Laxmanan added: 'Breached embankments are being repaired and the Bagmati river embankment is being monitored so that villagers cannot cut it at any cost. As far as relief work is concerned, supervision would help it to reach affected people as much as possible, because floodwater rose in these panchayats since last evening.'

Aklu Mallik, a resident of Chauta village of Kamtaul block, said: 'We have taken shelter at Kamtaul railway station since yesterday. We have not got any relief till now, while 20 more affected village households have taken shelter at different raised platforms.'

Asim Chandra, another resident of Chauta village in Kamtaul block, said: “The water level is increasing gradually. Villagers are taking shelter wherever they get a raised platform. No one has come to visit us or no relief has reached us so far.” He added that the Jalley-Kamtaul road link had been severely affected and the current in flowing water was very high.

The condition would turn grim if the water level keeps on increasing. Most mud houses have collapsed, triggering panic among the villagers and making them busy in shifting goods and animals the whole day.