Flood: Ten NDRF teams rushed to Bihar, UP

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The Centre tonight rushed 10 NDRFteams to flood-hit areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in orderto launch massive relief and rescue operations to help thosemarooned in these states. NDRF Director General O P Singh told PTI that while fiveteams are being airlifted for immediate deployment from itsbase in Odisha to Uttar Pradesh, the rest five are beingpicked by choppers from Bathinda in Punjab and will be sent toBihar. "These fresh teams will be launched into operation byearly tomorrow," the DG said, adding they would be equippedwith boats and essential items like medicines. Singh said the teams will be in addition to the 56 suchcontingents which are undertaking flood combat operations inthese two states, besides Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andUttarakhand. The DG also briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singhwith full updates of the flood situation in these states latein the night. In order to launch massive operations in the twoworst-affected states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the NDRF hascreated on-ground control rooms in these two states anddeputed two senior Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) S SGuleria (Patna) and R K Rana (Varanasi) to take control of thesituation. Earlier in the day, the NDRF said it had rescued morethan 26,000 people from the flood-ravaged areas of thesestates. "So far, the NDRF teams have evacuated more than 26,400people from various flood-prone areas in the country thismonsoon season. Besides the rescue work, these teams haveprovided medical care to the more than 9,100 people in theseStates," the NDRF said. In Bihar yesterday, NDRF teams evacuated 3,400 peoplefrom Didarganj, 580 from Bakhtiyarpur, 545 from Danapur, 380from Chhapra, 355 from Vaishali and 15 from Maner in Patna. The NDRF said 11 flood rescue teams rescued 275 peoplefrom Ballia, 275 from Varanasi and 325 from Chitrakoot in UPon yesterday. Nearly 150 marooned people were shifted to safer placesfrom Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. "An NDRF team pre-positioned in Sikkim conducted similaroperations in Tingbung and Lingdang villages and evacuatedmore than 450 people on Sunday," it said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised full support tothese flood-hit states in the conduct of rescue and reliefoperations. Home Minister Rajnath Singh is closely monitoring thesituation and had telephonic conversation with Chief MinistersAkhilesh Yadav (UP), Harish Rawat (Uttarakhand), NitishKumar (Bihar) and Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) and took stockof the flood situation in the states. PTI NESSMN