1.
AERIAL V Flooded area (2 shots)
0.08

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GV Floodwaters and people carrying belongings (2 shots)
0.19

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GV Flooded street (5 shots)
0.32

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SV Villagers building sand barriers (2 shots)
0.50

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GV Cattle walking in floodwater (3 shots)
1.02

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GV People in boat arrive at safe area
1.12

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SV Refugees getting out of boat (2 shots)
1.31

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CU Defence Minister Jagjiwan Ram looking at map and entering helicopter (3 shots)
1.41

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CU Helicopter pilot
1.44

10.
AV Flooded areas (6 shots)
2.21



Initials ???/0230



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: More than 150 people have died in monsoon flooding around the capital city of New Delhi in India, Much of the city's western section has been swamped and troops have joined in the effort to evacuate 70 thousand people.

SYNOPSIS: Government officials say the flooding is getting worse all the time. The swollen Yamuna River is only a few inches from bursting over the top of a restraining wall. The floodwaters have been putting extremes pressures on the banks, and the wall has already cracked.

Huge pumps have been installed in the worst hit parts of the capital, and nearly twelve hundred troops have been called out to help in the emergency operations.

Government reports say the floods have affected more than six million people and damaged crops over an area of three thousand square miles (7,700 square kilometres).

Villagers who live in outlying areas near New Delhi have been the worst hit. Their crops have been destroyed, their animals drowned and their homes ruined. Many of them have been stranded and troops have launched a large rescue operation. The authorities have been struggling to provide emergency shelters for thousands of people.

Already the floods have brought with them a storm of controversy. New Delhi's Chief Executive Councillor has criticised the city's planners for putting people in some of the low-lying suburbs. He has accused them of dumping people and not re-settling them.

The country's Defence Minister Jagjiwan Ram has taken charge of the military's rescue operations. He toured the worst hit areas and then made an aerial inspection in an Air Force helicopter.

The Relief Minister, Radhika Bernek Bernerjee has said crop losses are estimated at nearly 300 million Rupees (about two million pounds sterling). Many factories have also been affected with machinery ruined and workers forced out of their jobs. Apart from New Delhi, badly hit areas include Bihar, Orissa, Gujaret, and Haryana States. Government officials fear that worse is to come. Even if the weather improves there will be more suffering for many thousands of people. And if the rains don't go away Government engineers say the floods will be among the most devastating they have ever faced.