North Bengal disaster: Situation stabilises further; no new casualties reported

Kolkata, Oct 8 (IANS) The situation in the flood and landslide-affected hills, Terai, and Dooars regions in North Bengal stabilised further in the last 24 hours with no fresh casualties reported during the period.

Absence of renewed rainfall in the region during the last 24 hours not only prevented the situation from worsening further but also increased the pace of the relief, rescue, and restoration operations.

An official from the Darjeeling district administration, the worst-affected district in the state, said that although repair and restoration works for a number of roads have been completed, the main connecting road between the hills and the plains is yet to be made communicable.

“Still, the alternative routes of Tindharia Road and Pankhabari Road are being used to bring down the tourists from the hills to the plains. As of now, the majority of the tourists have been evacuated and all of them have safely reached Siliguri,” the district administration official said.

Fortunately, the weather forecast has not predicted any major rainfall in all the districts of North Bengal during the next 24 hours. As per predictions, the three districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, and Cooch Behar might witness light to medium rain on Wednesday. Yellow alerts have been issued for the three districts.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in North Bengal for the last two days reviewing the situation in the affected areas there, will be returning to Kolkata this afternoon. After returning to Kolkata, she is expected to give further updates on the administrative initiatives being undertaken in the affected areas.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister made a short visit to a hospital in Siliguri where the BJP Lok Sabha member, Khagen Murmu, was admitted. He suffered injuries when he and the Chief Whip of the BJP in the West Bengal assembly, Shankar Ghosh, were attacked in Bamundanga in Jalpaiguri district, allegedly by the Trinamool Congress activists.

Ghosh, who was admitted to the same hospital, denied giving consent to meet the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, had described the development as yet another attempt by the Chief Minister to gain publicity.

“It comes as no surprise that this was yet another crass attempt by the Chief Minister to gain cheap publicity -- especially after the violence unleashed by marauding mobs in Bamandanga under Sulkapara, an area long used to settle illegal Bangladeshis,” Malviya said in a social media statement.

--IANS

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