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42,000 people lodged in flood relief camps in Tripura

By Correspondent

AGARTALA, June 16 - Although the overall flood situation has slightly improved in Tripura, over 42,000 people are still lodged in 189 relief camps set up across the State.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who visited the worst-affected Kailashahar and Kumarghat subdivisions in Unakoti district on Friday, asked officials to reach out to the marooned people with relief materials and medical aid at the earliest.

Two IAF choppers have already been pressed into service to distribute food, water and medicines in the flood-ravaged Kailashahar subdivision, where over 21,000 people are staying in relief camps, said Deputy Secretary of the Revenue department Sankar Chakraborty today.

�NDRF, Assam Rifles and TSR personnel are engaged in relief and rescue work, and search is on to find if anybody is still marooned in the flood-hit areas,� he added.

The administration has already alerted villagers residing on the bank of the Manu river, which is flowing above the danger level.

Worried over the situation, the Chief Minister held an emergency meeting with heads of PWD, Water Resources, and Health and Family Welfare departments to review the situation so that remedial measures can be taken expeditiously.

The Chief Minister has asked officials to speed up restoration works and ensure that the affected people receive relief materials without any hassles. Deb also exhorted the officials to take all possible steps to prevent any outbreak of water-borne diseases.

Meanwhile, due to fresh landslides between Bandarkhal and Damchara stations, about 36 km ahead of Badarpur, train service continues to remain suspended in the Lumding-Badarpur section, according to NFR sources.

The Sealdah-Agartala Kanchanjungha Express, which started from Sealdah on June 14, has been cancelled, while the Anand Vihar-Agartala Rajdhani Express will be short-terminated at Guwahati and will remain partially cancelled between Guwahati and Agartala.

Similarly, the Agartala-Anand Vihar Rajdhani Express will start from Guwahati on June 19 due to the landslips. �Work is in progress in the affected location and as per preliminary estimates, complete restoration is likely to take two to three days,� said an NFR official.

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