- Eleven people die in Midnapores as Met office forecasts more rain in coastal areas The flood killed 11 more people in East and West Midnapore today, taking the toll to 20 and prompting the government to add to its relief purse. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who will be travelling to Kolaghat in East Midnapore tomorrow, held a meeting with finance minister Asim Dasgupta, health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra and relief minister Mortaza Hossain in Calcutta. He might visit some of the flood-hit areas tomorrow. With the Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, the government does not want to hand the Opposition ammunition to allege poor relief work. The Left Front has suffered panchayat poll reverses in East Midnapore and is keen to embark on a damage-control exercise as soon as it can. The government today hiked the money allotted for relief from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 6 crore. For the Midnapores there is more rain forecast tomorrow. The Met office in Calcutta has predicted widespread rain in the south Bengal districts over the next 24 hours. "Rainfall is expected to be fairly widespread in Gangetic Bengal. Compared with Calcutta, more rain is expected in East and West Midnapore and North and South 24-Parganas,' said G.C. Debnath, director of the weather section. Although the flood-hit districts did not receive any rain today, the situation in East Midnapore turned grim with 20 more villages submerged. Siddhartha Shankar Chakraborty, the subdivisional officer of Egra, East Midnapore, said: "Although the rain has stopped, the flood situation has worsened. We have received reports of four deaths from Patashpur Block-I, which was flooded by the Keleghai yesterday. All four who died today were washed away by the swirling currents.' He added: "In some areas there is 10 feet of water. We could not send relief to these areas. Air force helicopters dropped some food packets but that was inadequate.' The army too had launched relief operations in Amarshi, Bhagabanpur and Bibhishanpur, rescuing several hundred villagers. "But it had to call off operations because of the surging waters,' Chakraborty said. Ajoy Kar, 45, a farmer from Hamirpur who had clambered into a boat with his wife and two sons, said: "The water started rising from 5am today. We took shelter in the two-storey house of a neighbour. I saw 1,000kg of paddy that I had stored in a room drift away in front of my eyes.' West Midnapore, where nearly 16 lakh people have been affected, reported seven more deaths. "Six people were washed away; one died of snakebite,' said Pulin Behari Baskey, the zilla parishad sabhadhipati. The worst-hit areas are Sabang, Pingla, Narayangarh, Keshiari, Sankrail, Nayagram, Danton and Gopiballavpur blocks. Army motorboats rescued 100 villagers in Sabang, but "when another team went to Narayangarh, it had to withdraw because of the current. Only four villagers were rescued,' said Nibedita Mondal, the BDO.