Rajnath Singh begins aerial survey of flood-hit areas of Uttar Pradesh

Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Gorakhpur today to undertake an aerial survey of flood-hit areas of Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, he reviewed the flood situation in affected states with the home ministry officials and directed the National Executive Committee on Disaster Management to closely monitor the situation.

Earlier this week several villages of Gorakhpur District were inundated by flood waters of the River Rapti.

Also last week, other parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich District and Sitapur town, West Bengal's Cooch Behar District and Uttarakhand's Haridwar city experienced a flood-like situation.

The flood death toll in Uttar Pradesh as on Thursday has been pegged at 87, of which 33 have been reported from Bahraich. In the last 24 hours, six more persons have lost their lives in Balrampur, and one each have died in Bahraich, Gonda and Lakhimpur Kheri Districts.

The number of those affected by flood in nearly one dozen districts of the state has reached over one million in over 1,100 villages. The flood was reportedly caused by the release of water by Nepal into the rivers.

Apart from Gorakhpur, Singh will undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected districts of Balrampur, Bahraich, Gonda, Basti and Siddharthnagar today.