The flooded Ratua Road in Malda town. Pix: Surajit Roy

Raiganj, Oct. 23: Incessant rain over the past few days have flooded three blocks of the subdivision and seven wards under the Raiganj municipality.

?Raiganj and adjoining areas have recorded rainfall of 90 mm in the past 24 hours,? said Sunil Banik, the subdivisional officer (SDO). ?Vast areas of Raiganj, Hemtabad and Itahar blocks have been submerged.?

More than 200 mud houses in the villages have collapsed, while standing crops on 2,000 hectares of land, worth over Rs 1 crore, have been destroyed. No casualty, however, has yet been reported.

The downpour did not even spare the wildlife: around 500 birds at the Kulik bird sanctuary have reportedly died.

?The rivers in the district are still flowing below the danger level, but if the rain continues, the streams are sure to overflow,? Banik said. ?We have also formed a task force, which will ensure that the vendors do not hoard vegetables so that they can later sell them at higher rates.?

The block development officers have been asked to prepare lists of residents of their areas, who have been affected by the flood.

According to the officials, Jagadishpur, Bahin and Sitgram in Raiganj block, Birgram and Milon in Hemtabad block and Marna and Kapasia in Itahar block are the worst hit.

?Relief material has been sent to the affected areas,? Banik said. However, residents of Kumardangi, Shaktinagar, Askokpally, Paschim Birnagar and Abdulghata complained of alleged apathy of the civic body.

?We have to wade through knee-deep water to reach our workplaces,? said Minati Das, a nurse at a local nursing home. ?Before Durga Puja, the civic body had pumped out accumulated water from waterlogged streets, but now the officials are not making any effort to help us.?

Chairman of Raiganj Municipality Mohit Sen said he did not have enough funds to hire pumps to clear water from the streets. He has urged the district administration to help the civic body.

District superintendent of police Pradeep Kumar Sanyal said a team of district officials, led by the SDO and deputy superintendent of police C.K. Pradhan, today visited various markets here and warned traders against hoarding goods.