Army boats were rescuing people and distributing relief material to the affected at Ketugram and Purbasthali in Burdwan district, while airdropping of food packets from IAF helicopters continued at Kandi in Murshidabad district, State Home (Police) Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee told newspersons here.

Helicopter sorties would be carried out in Birbhum from Tuesday, he said.

Bhattacharjee said that as of now, 11 deaths were reported from Murshidabad, followed by eight from Burdwan, four from Midnapore, three from Howrah, two each from Birbhum, Bankura and Uttar Dinajpur and one from Hooghly. Two persons were reported missing from Birbhum, he said.

The Bhagirathi was flowing at the extreme danger level at Farakka and Kalna while the Jalangi was above the danger level at several placesin Murshidabad and Nadia districts. The holy town of Nabadwip in Nadia district was inundated, he said.

He said the overall situation had remained unchanged, adding over 30 lakh people had been affected so far.

According to Bhattacharjee, police rescued 35,000 people from the flood-affected areas of Calcutta and lodged them in various school buildings.

Ekbalpore area in South-West Calcutta was the worst-hit, he said, adding water drained from the Tangra and Tposia areas in East Calcutta was being pushed back from the Kestopur canal.

The situation in the inundated lake town and Banguravenue areas in the northern fringes was serious.

Earlier in the day, an all-party meeting convened by the State Government unanimously decided to demand Rs 250 crore from the Centre to carry on relief and rehabilitation in the State.

Chief Minister Jyoti Basu told newspersons after the meeting that while political parties and non-governmental organisations were free to distribute relief on their own in consultationwith district magistrates and superintendents of police, Government relief would be distributed only through State agencies.

Flood victims disrupt rail, road services

CALCUTTA: Flood victims disrupted rail and surface transport services in several areas in West Bengal on Monday in protest against the ``failure'' of the authorities to drain out accumulated waters from their areas that remained inundated for the last three days.

Train services on both the main line and chord line of the Eastern Railway's Howrah division were badly affected as angry residents obstructed train movements between Bhadreswar and Baidyabati stations for over seven hours on the issue.

Railway sources said commuters removed the motormen of the Up and Down Tarakeswar local trains and squatted on tracks at Serampur station, as groups of people obstructed train movements on the Howrah-Bardhaman chord line section.

Normal train services were affected at Barrackpore station on the Sealdah division too, where agitationsstalled train movements during the day.

Flood-affected people also came out on the roads in the city's Ultadanga area demanding immediate steps to remove waterlogging that forced hundreds of locals to shift to dry areas. Flood victims also set up road blocks on the VIP road connecting the city with its airport, disrupting traffic for over an hour, police said.