Heavy rains over the weekend aggravated flooding in South Asia, where more than 153 people have died and 4.5 million have been left homeless since the monsoons swept into the region mid-June, officials said Monday.
Indian and Nepalese authorities have called in army personnel to help rescue hundreds of thousands of marooned people, officials in the two countries said.
India accounted for the bulk of flood-related deaths in South Asia with the toll touching 99, a government official said Monday.
The eastern and north-eastern parts of the country, particularly the states of Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, have been most-severely affected.
The floods have so far displaced close to three million people in the north-east, an Assam state official said.
The deteriorating flood situation in Bihar and Assam was raised during discussions Monday in the lower house of India's parliament where opposition MPs demanded the government send a federal team to ascertain the damage and oversee relief operations.
"The state government (of Bihar) has completely failed in providing relief," MP Sushil Kumar Modi said.
In neighbouring Nepal, five days of incessant rain caused heavy flooding and landslides in the south-eastern and south-western regions which had claimed 46 lives, officials said Monday.
The Nepalese government has deployed army and police personnel and local volunteers in flood affected districts to help bring villagers to safer areas.
Bangladesh too was in the grip of floods and bracing for worse after large parts of the north were submerged and 1.5 million people marooned by rising waters. Eight people died at the weekend from flood-related causes, police said.
Forecasters said they expected more low-lying areas to be inundated over the next few days, the official news agency BSS said.
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