Plea for Bengal flood aid

Transport links have been cut off in the floods

Politicians in the Indian state of West Bengal have called on the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to launch immediate relief operations to help nearly 10 million people made homeless by floods.

More than 200 people are reported to have been killed in the state over the past five days, and water levels are still rising because of heavy rain.

Officials have been forced to release huge volumes of water from dams to prevent damage to their structures.

Millions have been made homeless

The situation worsened dramatically on Friday, with whole villages being washed away in the Murshidabad area.

Property and farmland worth millions of dollars have also been damaged. Thousands of cattle and livestock are believed to have died.

Local politicians met the prime minister on Friday night to ask for help.

Reports say Mr Vajpayee has ordered the Indian air forces to assist in the operations, including the dropping of food parcels.

The Indian army has already been pressed into service.

Army helicopters dropped food packages to stranded villagers. Elsewhere soldiers used boats to move people to higher ground.

Thousands of villagers have been using stranded trains as temporary shelters.

"People are cooking and sleeping inside the trains with their cattle and livestock," a district official told Reuters.

Industrial action

State Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta said he feared that more areas could become flooded by the Maithon and Panchet dams because of unprecendented rainfall in the Barakar and Damodar catchment areas.

In one of the worst affected areas in the Murshidabad district, 60 people were swept away by flash floods that cut off south Bengal from the north.

A work-to-rule action by state telecom employees is said to be hampering rescue attempts.

West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu slammed the telecom workers for their "non-cooperation even in times of this crisis".