Dumka: A 60-year-old woman drowned after stepping into a deep stretch of floodwater near her home late Friday night, taking the number of people killed in separate drowning incidents in flood-hit Sahibganj district over the past five days to four, police said.The latest victim, Pushpa Devi, lived in Badi Kodarjanna Naya Tola under Mufassil police station limits. Police and family members said she had gone out to use a toilet near her house on Friday night. With floodwaters surrounding the house, she apparently stepped into deep water and drowned.“She had gone to the toilet and did not return for a long time. We started searching for her and later found her body in the water,” her husband Murari Mandal said.A police team led by sub-inspector Akhilesh Kumar Singh reached the spot, recovered the body and sent it to Sahibganj Sadar Hospital for postmortem examination.Villagers said movement had become difficult as water had surrounded houses, making daily activities risky, particularly after dark. The latest death has triggered fear in the area, where 56-year-old Jeechu Ram had drowned in floodwaters at Badi Kodarjanna on Sept 7.On Sept 6, six-year-old Kanchan Kumari went missing after drowning while bathing in deep water in the Krishna Prasad diara area under Mufassil police station limits. She has not been traced despite several days of search.Several rural areas of Sahibganj block remain inundated, leaving residents struggling to commute and carry out routine work.The Ganga water level in Sahibganj rose to 28.72 metres on Friday, the highest recorded in the district in four years, worsening conditions for people living along the riverbank. Last year, the river had touched a maximum of 28.70 m in Sahibganj.Central Water Commission site in-charge Chhote Lal Malto said the river was receding between Buxar and Munger and remained stable elsewhere.“However, the water level of the Ganga in Sahibganj is gradually rising due to the discharge from the Kosi river. We expect the water level to stabilise soon,” Malto said.Former MLA Sita Murmu Soren on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide immediate financial assistance from the PM’s National Relief Fund for Sahibganj.In her letter to the PM, she said dozens of villages had been submerged, affecting thousands of families. Many residents had lost access to shelter and food, while standing crops had been destroyed on a large scale, adversely affecting farmers and rural livelihoods.Sita, who is chief minister Hemant Soren’s sister-in-law, also highlighted losses of livestock and the acute difficulties faced by residents in several parts of the district. “The scale of the disaster has stretched available resources and necessitates immediate intervention from the Centre,” she said, seeking an urgent relief package.(With inputs from Ranchi)
