Maharashtra flood situation in control: CM

The flood situation in Maharashtra is under control and the state government is keeping a close watch on it, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Monday.

Deshmukh, who visited the low lying areas of the city on Monday morning, told reporters that the Army was assisting police and civic officials in rescue and relief operations in flood-affected districts of Buldana, Jalgaon, Nanded and Yavatmal.

Food packets and water bottles were being aerially dropped to marooned people, he added.

Meanwhile, 3 inter-city trains on the Central Railway route from Pune to Mumbai were cancelled, railway sources said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday talked to the Chief Ministers of flood-hit Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Orissa on telephone and assured them of the Centre's help for relief work.

''The Army has been kept on a standby for rescue and relief,'' Dr Singh told Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Narendra Modi and Naveen Pattnaik, an official press note said.