Waters from the raging Shilabati river flow past a three-storied building damaged in floods in Pratappur village of West Midnapore on Sunday.

At least 20 people stranded in the building for the past few days were airlifted to safety on Saturday after the air force demonstrated that rescuing with ropes tied to the waist was neither critical nor unsafe.

The demonstration was needed because the villagers had refused to be lifted through winching to a helicopter a day earlier. Altogether 30 people were rescued by the process in flood-hit Ghatal on Saturday.

Actor and Trinamul MP Dev (below) visited his constituency Ghatal on Sunday and held three meetings with administrative officials on the flood situation.

The Ghatal sub-division has been one of the worst-hit areas in the state this year, with breaches in the embankments of the swollen Shilabati and other rivers flooding several villages. The area witnesses floods almost every year.

"I want the Ghatal master plan executed during my tenure as a Lok Sabha member. I will talk to Didi (Mamata Banerjee) and Rajib-da (Rajib Banerjee, state irrigation minister) about it again. I will take up the issue in Parliament tomorrow," Dev said.

Dev had on August 2 last year raised the perennial problem of floods in Ghatal in his maiden speech in the Lok Sabha.

Speaking mostly in Bengali, he had sought the Centre's help in implementing the flood-prevention Ghatal master plan.

The Ghatal master plan involves desilting of rivers like the Shilabati and Kangshabati, and re-excavation of ponds and canals in the flood-prone areas of the two Midnapores.

"If this project is implemented, about 17 lakh people in a dozen blocks of the two Midnapores would be benefited," said an irrigation department official.

Report by Anshuman Phadikar, pictures by Pradip Sanyal