Rescuers struggle to deliver aid after deadly India floods

KOLKATA, India, Tuesday (AFP) Rescue workers struggled to deliver food and water Monday to at least one million people living in villages cut off by floods after six days of rains in India's West Bengal state, officials said.

Rescue workers ferried boatloads of rice and sugar to coastal villagers but many people remained without supplies and faced hunger and dehydration, West Bengal relief minister Hafiz Ali Sairani told reporters.

"More than half of the two million people in four coastal districts affected by the flooding still remain marooned in the submerged villages of East Midnapore district and the Sunderbans off the Bay of Bengal," Sairani said.

He said at least 14 people had died in the floods.

Two rivers in the mangrove-thick Sunderbans region overflowed their banks in the past week, flooding hundreds of villages and farms, officials said.

"Relief could not reach many villages as roads were washed away," Sairani said.

The unseasonal rains following the July-September monsoon caught many by surprise and officials said it was difficult to transport food and clean water to the hardest-hit areas. The rains, brought on by a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal, halted Monday, said regional meteorological office official G.C. Deb.

"We expect the sky will gradually clear from Monday afternoon though light to moderate rain is likely to continue over Kolkata and the districts during the next 24 hours," Deb said.

Some desperate villagers clashed with relief workers, police and state government officials, prompting some officials to refuse to visit flooded areas.

"Many district officials will not go to the villages in fear of frayed tempers," Sairani said. In West Bengal's East Midnapore district, police were met with a hail of stones after they tried to prevent farmers from cutting the river banks to clear the flood waters. Seven officers sustained minor injuries, Sairani said.

A resident of Nandigram village in East Midnapore, Bijali Das, told AFP that relief supplies had not arrived in his village and food stocks were depleted.

"No relief has yet reached us. Our stocks of rice and wheat flour were exhausted two days ago," he said.