Mamata leaves for North Bengal

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday left for North Bengal from Kolkata station to oversee the flood situation. She will visit Malda on Monday, take stock of the situation there and hold meeting with the district officials. On Tuesday, she will travel to South Dinajpur and visit the affected areas and then return to Kolkata.

According to a top official at Nabanna, the Chief Minister, who left by Dhana Dhanye Express this late afternoon will take the road route to Malda on Monday. On Monday night, she will put up at Malda and again take the road route to South Dinajpur. She will return by Hazarduari Express. Banerjee has been accompanied by Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim and some senior officials of the secretariat.

Banerjee had earlier visited Amta and Udaynarayanpur in Howarh following heavy inundation in South Bengal. The flood-like situation in South Bengal, however, had aggravated due to indiscriminate release of water from the barrage of Damodar Valley Corpoartion.

Though flood situation in some parts of North Bengal improved on Sunday, South Dinajpur and Malda still remained inundated. According to sources in the district administration, around 400 villages are still submerged in the water of Phullar river though the water level is coming down. Thousands of villagers have taken shelter in relief camps and roads.

As National Highway 34 remained under water, there were long queues of stranded trucks in Farakka, Dhulian and Samserganj triggering fears of shortage of vegetables.

All nine trains under North Frontier Railways to North Bengal and Guwahati like the Darjeeling Mail, Padatik Express, Teesta Torsa Express, Uttarbanga Express, Kampur Express etc were cancelled on Sunday. The special train by Eastern Railway left for Raigunj in North Dinajpur via Katihar from Howrah station on Sunday evening.