Union minister of state for women and child welfare department and BJP MP from Raiganj, Debasree Chaudhuri, has distributed five country boats among residents of Anantapur, Khirabari, Goaldaha, Jugiamer and Dupduar villages in Raiganj in North Dinajpur district.
As the monsoon rains lash the region, the villages have been inundated with flood waters from the Nagar river nearby. “Residents of these villages had been facing big problems going to Raiganj town for their daily needs in lack of boats,” sources said.
The villagers said that water from the Nagar and Kulick rivers enter the villages every year during the monsoon season. “In addition to that, water from the Bihar areas nearby also flood the villages, destroying standing crops in the fields,” one villager said. Around 50 villages remain under water for around four months in that area and road communication remains cut off for a long time.
“When people fall ill, they fail to take the patients to the Raiganj Medical College & Hospital for treatment,” the villager added. “We heard that the villages are inundated with river water. I met the villagers and they had urged me to provide them some boats instead of other relief materials. So today I distributed five boats in the villages,” Minister Chaudhuri said yesterday after the distribution programme.
From Alipurduar to Malda and South and North Dinajpur, several areas near the rivers flowing through these districts have been either inundated or are presently under threat of inundation, given the advancement of the monsoon season.