Jaridharala (Cooch Behar), July 26: This remote hamlet close to the India-Bangladesh border has been totally submerged forcing many residents to take shelter on higher ground across the border, some in flood shelters on Indian mainland and some among them are off to look for work outside the state.

Jaridhara and Daribas are two villages on the banks of the Mansai river that flows along the international border. For the past two days, a steady stream of men and women has been moving out of the state to eke out a living.

The villages are located in the Gitaldaha II gram panchayat in Dinhata subdivision, about 50km from Cooch Behar town.

One villager said if the administration had built an embankment on the Mansai, the residents of the two villages would not have had to leave.

Trinamul pradhan of the gram panchayat, Aminul Haq, said the two villages had been cut off by the floods from the mainland.

"Many villagers have taken shelter across the border in Bangladesh. Some are in the relief camp set up by our administration. There are those who are leaving to look for work in other states. By now, about 200 men and women have left," Haq said.

He said all the farmland had been submerged in the two villages. "There will be no crops for weeks to come. That is why people are moving out to Delhi to look for work as labourers," the pradhan said.

Gulzar Miyan was among those leaving for Delhi, along with his wife Manjuri Bibi. "How long will we stay in the relief camp? We are farm labourers and there will be no work for at least two months now. Not only us, but many others are leaving for Delhi to look for work," he said.

Fazle Miyan, another farm labourer, said he had returned from Delhi two months ago. "I was working at a construction site in Noida and had returned two months back. Now the floods are forcing me to return to Delhi for work," he said.

On Monday afternoon, north Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh visited this area to check relief arrangements. There he chanced upon some families moving to Delhi and spoke to them.

When asked about the situation, Ghosh said: "It took me three hours by boat and on foot to reach Jaridharala on Monday. The villages have been cut off by flood waters. Some of the affected have moved to Mogolhat just 10 minutes walk inside Bangladesh. During floods, the residents of the area prefer to move to Mogolhat. It is true that some people are leaving to look for work outside the state. But it is a fact that for the past few years the number of migrant labourers has come down in Cooch Behar," Ghosh said.