LUCKNOW, India - Monsoon rains have inundated large parts of Uttar Pradesh state in India, and 21 people were killed in drownings, house collapses and lightning strikes over the weekend, officials said on Monday.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, at least 12 people have died in landslides or after being hit by lighting over the past two days in heavy rainstorms in the nation's east.
Across India, at least 250 people have been killed since the start of the monsoon season in June.
The heavy rains have caused power outages for several hours across Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 170,000 million people, including in the state capital, Lucknow.
Last week, more than 80 people died in extreme monsoon weather in western and eastern India and normal life in large parts of Mumbai ground to a halt for two days as downpours hit India's financial hub.
In Uttar Pradesh, people slammed the government for not undertaking measures to prevent waterlogging and flooding.
"It seems officials are only interested in releasing funds every year so they can pilfer while we have to suffer year after year on account of nature's fury," said Ram Chander, a labourer living on the outskirts of Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh Relief Commissioner Renuka Kumar said though the state had an annual budget of 3 billion rupees (US$65 million) to deal with natural disasters, it had only spent 800 million rupees.
(US$1=46 rupees)
(Additional reporting by Nizam Ahmed in DHAKA)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
