Heavy rains trigger landslide in Manipur, 20 dead; floods wreak havoc in West Bengal, Odisha

New Delhi: The flood situation in northeastern and eastern parts of the country has turned very grim with heavy rains disrupting normal life. Manipur, Odisha and West Bengal are the worst affected states.

In Manipur, 20 people were killed in a landslide triggered by heavy incessant rain at Zoumoal village in Chandel district.

Superintendent of Police of Chandel district Herojit Singh said 20 people were killed in the landslide at the village under Khangbarol sub-division of the district.

Due to excessive rains key highways have been cut off, villages have drowned under heavy water leading to thousands rendered homeless.

Though the flood situation in Odisha improved significantly, the inflow of rain water from the neighbouring West Bengal on Saturday caused marooning of 10 more villages in the bordering Balasore district even as the toll in the current spell of flood is five, officials said.

"All the major rivers in the state are flowing below the danger level. However, inflow of rain water from West Bengal, where heavy rainfall occurred under the effect of cyclonic system Komen, has caused marooning of some more villages in Balasore district," special relief commissioner (SRC) GVV Sarma said.

As per reports received from the collectors of the concerned districts, the SRC said about 4.79 lakh people of 597 villages under 15 Blocks and one ULB in five districts namely Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Jajpur, Bhardak and Balasore have been affected by the current spell of flood.

The flood situation in south Bengal is also serious with 1.19 lakh people taking shelter in relief camps in 12 districts of the state even as weatherman forecast more heavy rains in the next two days.

"So far 966 relief camps have been set up sheltering 1.19 lakh affected people," West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Speaking about the flood situation in the state after a review meeting, the chief minister said 12 districts in the Gangetic plains were affected, while the number of rain or flood related deaths did not increase and stood at 39 people as reported on Friday.

Flooding of farmland, towns and villages were reported from several districts of South Bengal like Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan, Bankura, South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore with heavy downpour occurring in Gangetic West Bengal in the last few days.