By Himangshu Watts
KALYANI, India, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Deadly flood riots broke out in eastern India on Tuesday as heavy showers drenched the region taking the death toll from monsoon flooding to 457.
Police said one person was killed in the poverty-stricken state of Bihar as angry victims in a flood-hit village turned violent while trying to enrol on a government relief list.
A police official told Reuters a scuffle broke out when about 200 people gathered in the village which has been hit by torrential rains for the past week.
"After the scuffle among the villagers, there was firing which killed one person," Superintendent of Police U.P. Singh said.
In the neighbouring flood-hit state of West Bengal, more than 200 people were missing and nearly five million houses damaged by the floods that have affected more than 15 million people, a state relief department spokesman said on Tuesday.
Officials said the situation had improved in the worst-hit district of Murshidabad, where 184 people have died, but the water had now flooded new areas in Nadia district, 150 km (95 miles) north of Calcutta.
Volunteers and troops had joined civil authorities in relief efforts but officials said many areas remained inaccessible as road and rail links were severely hit.
A relief department spokesman said air force helicopters could not drop food pouches in totally submerged areas as they needed dry patches for the packets to land.
Villagers, who have taken shelter on elevated stretches of highways and platforms in railway stations, complained that drinking water was scarce, food prices had shot up and relief measures were not enough.
"Vegetable prices have gone up 50 percent, and green chillies are selling at 10 times their usual price," said Bulal Saha, a vendor at a suburban railway station near the industrial town of Kalyani, 70 km (40 miles) northwest of Calcutta.
TRAIN SERVICES HIT
Local authorities said train services around Murshidabad, Nadia, Kalyani and parts of the Hooghly district -- all in West Bengal -- were suspended because parts of the tracks were under water.
Villagers, camped in improvised shelters made of bamboo sticks covered with bright blue canvas sheets, said their food stocks were running out.
"We have been sitting here for four days. We don't have food for tomorrow and our cows don't have fodder," said Kamal Sarkar as he pointed to a herd of cows on the railway track.
About 150 factories in the main industrial block at Kalyani were submerged in over five feet (1.5 metres) of water.
"Most of the equipment and machinery are under water," said Madan Singh, public relations officer of the Kalyani Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "It will take us at least three months to start production."
Most roads and residential areas in Kalyani were submerged in knee-deep water and hundreds of people had gathered on the bumpy Kalyani Expressway to board a bus to safer areas.
Industrialists complained the administration, grappling to rescue marooned villagers, had ignored them.
"Nobody has even bothered to look at us," complained Singh as he braved torrential rains while standing in a queue for a water tanker.
Singh said he had stepped out in a boat from his first-floor house in a residential complex adjoining the industrial area, where 5,000 people live.
Residents, who have lived without power for four days, said the water level surged suddenly on Saturday and a day later, people on the first floor were in knee-deep water.
"I had never imagined that boats will be used in this area," said P.K. Sinha, another resident.