August 1, 2005	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1426

MUMBAI, July 31: Police urged millions of Bombay residents to stay off the streets as heavy rains brought more flooding to India’s financial hub on Sunday and relief officials said the death toll in the region could reach 1,000.

Dead bodies and carcasses of animals were still strewn across parts of Bombay and its suburbs from last week’s flooding, raising fears of disease, TV and officials said.

“I hope there is no epidemic,” Maharashtra relief commissioner Krishna Vatsa said.

The monsoon rains in the region have been the heaviest for almost a century and, on Sunday, western India was drenched again.

“We are appealing to people not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary,” Police Commissioner A.N. Roy told Reuters.

Officials said fatalities in the western state of Maharashtra, including Bombay, were rising as more bodies were dug out from villages flattened by landslides south of Bombay.

In Raigarh district, 150km south of Bombay, about 200 are dead or missing. At least 910 confirmed deaths have been reported in the state, police said.

“The death toll in Raigarh is likely to go up by another 100 or so because more dead bodies are coming up. It (the total) may touch around 1,000, including about 400 deaths in Bombay,” said Vatsa.

“It’s raining and this will hamper the relief distribution and search operations.”

NEGLECT: Industry officials said the damage bill would run to billions of rupees in Bombay, headquarters to India’s biggest firms, following the flooding.

“One understands the rains are unprecedented but, having said that, the fact is that years of neglect of infrastructure has showed up,” said Vivek Bharati, adviser to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Sunday’s rains had raised fears of new landslides in and around the city.—Reuters

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