Raipur:Over 40,000 policemen in Chhattisgarh will donate a day's salary - amounting to Rs.5 million - to the government of Bihar for carrying out relief and rehabilitation work in flood-affected areas, officials said Tuesday.

The amount will be deposited in the relief fund of the Chhattisgarh chief minister and then sent to the Bihar chief minister's relief fund.

The Chhattisgarh government is also rushing relief material worth Rs.50 million as well as a team of doctors to Bihar. Chief Minister Raman Singh late Monday flagged off a truck loaded with blankets, bed-sheet and other relief material for Bihar.

Over 2.5 million people in 1,598 villages across 15 districts have been affected by the floods caused by the change in course of the Kosi river, sometimes called the 'Sorrow of Bihar', following a breach in an embankment upstream in Nepal.

The floods have claimed 35 lives, including 20 people who died Friday when the boat they were travelling in capsized in Madhepura district.

 

Source : IANS