India floods a 'calamity', says premier

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SAHARSA, India (AFP) — Massive flooding in eastern India has caused a "national calamity", the prime minister said Thursday after touring the devastated region where more than a million remain trapped.

Manmohan Singh announced a relief package of 228 million dollars and 125,000 tonnes of grain for those affected when a monsoon-swollen river changed course, flooding huge swathes of the country's impoverished Bihar state.

"If there is a need for more, we will give more," he told reporters. "We would like to assure the people of Bihar that all India will support them through this difficulty."

The Kosi river breached its banks ten days ago on the border with Nepal, flowing through a channel it had previously abandoned.

"About 90,000 victims have been...