Floods In India Cause Disaster

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31755, 12 August 1968, Page 13

Floods In India Cause Disaster

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, August 11. Damage to crops and property in last week’s disastrous monsoon floods in the West Indian State of Gujarat would run into millions of dollars, the State’s Chief Minister (Mr Hitendra Desai) said yesterday.

He told reporters In Ahmedabad that at least 15 people had died in the shattered city of Surat alone and many more were drowned in other parts of the worst-hit Surat and Broach districts.

But press reports that 150 bodies were seen floating on I water - logged ground neari Broach had not been con- i firmed, he said. The picture from the area, i battered for four days by 1 torrential rains and flood! waters from the great Narmada and Tapti Rivers, remained confused. Unofficial reports from Gujarat indicated that as many as 200 people might have lost their lives in the disaster. A further 34 deaths had' been officially confirmed in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra. As the flood-waters in South Gujarat receded and the slow drag back to normal began, thousands were left stranded or homeless in squalor. Mr Desai said the most urgent problem was to prevent diseases like typhoid and cholera spreading in the sodden, flood-stricken areas and to deal with health problems caused by rotting animal carcasses.

Telephone lines have been restored through the flood area between Ahmedabad and Bombay, electricity has come back to part of Surat and officials expected to open roads between Surat and Broach within two days. But railway officials said it might take two weeks to repair breaches and replace tom-up track on the lines between Bombay and Baroda.

In Northern India, three people were reported

drowned in floods that hit 700,000 people in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. At least 125,000 have been driven from their homes, been stranded or had their crops and property washed away in north Bihar. But in Hyderabad, southern India, Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister (Mr Brahmananda Reddy) said there was serious drought in several parts of his State and the loss in farm production might be colossal.