Manoj Bajpayee appeals to Nitish Kumar to help flood-affected areas

Mumbai, Aug 16 (IANS) Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee, who has his roots in Bihar, on Wednesday appealed to the state's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to look into the flood-affected areas there.

"I appeal to our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to look into this natural calamity and send help to affected areas. Hope and pray that help will reach soon," Manoj tweeted.

"Devastating flood situation in West Champaran, Bihar. our village is badly affected. People are running short of daily supply of food," he added.

Bihar has been affected by floods. The worst affected areas were Kishanganj, Araria, Purnea and Katihar of Seemanchal region and Supaul, Madhepura and Saharsa of Koshi region.

The flood situation has also worsened in East and West Champaran with the Gandak river breaching embankments in Bagaha, an official said.

People living in low lying areas have been advised to move to higher places as heavy rain continued.

Major rivers including the Koshi, Mahananda, Gandak, Bagmati and Ganga are in spate and some rivers have breached their banks and embankments, officials said.

The government has launched massive relief and rescue operations with help from the Army, Air Force as well as the National Disaster Response Force and Bihar State Disaster Response Force teams.

An official said over 69.41 lakh people in 1,070 panchayats under 98 blocks in 133 districts have been affected by the floods in Bihar.