ANWARUL HODA / PATNA

A six member central team led by Piyush Goel, Joint Secretary in Home Ministry is visiting flood affected areas of Bihar to assess the extent of damage in the state.

The team comprises of officials from the Union ministries of Home, Agriculture and Health. Three separate groups of the team have gone to worst affected Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Gopalganj districts to asses the situation. The team members held review meetings with concerned districts officials .

The central team met affected people and inquired about ongoing relief and rescue operations. The team also reviewed corona pandemic situation in flood ravaged areas of the state. After visiting flood affected areas, the team will hold a review meeting with Chief secretary and officials of the state disaster management department tomorrow. The team will then returns to Delhi and submit its report to the Union government for assistance. Meanwhile, over 83 lakh 62 thousand people from 1,333 panchayats of 16 districts are reeling under the impact of floods.

21 teams of NDRF and SDRF are carrying out relief and rescue operations. Over five lakh 50 thousand people have been evacuated so far. 34 community kitchen centres have been set up to provide food to flood affected people.

Agriculture Minister Prem Kumar said, standing crops spread over seven lakh fifty thousand hectares in 20 districts have been destroyed due to floods. 4,700 rural roads have also been damaged.