Bhubaneswar, Aug 6 (PTI) Though the water level in major rivers has come down in Odisha, flood waters entered fresh areas affecting a total of 6.24 lakh people in 11 districts, an official report said on Sunday.

The Special Relief Commissioner's (SRC) office said 75 fresh villages were inundated by flood water, taking the number of affected villages to 1,973 on Sunday from 1,898 a day ago.

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The number of Urban Local bodies hit by the flood remained unchanged at 26.

The SRC's office said in a report that the number of people reeling under the deluge has gone up from 5.73 lakh on Saturday to 6.24 lakh during the day.

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The government opened seven more free kitchens to feed 912 more people who were evacuated since Saturday, an official said.

Meanwhile, the authorities of the Hirakud reservoir released excess water to downstream of the Mahanadi through 20 sluice gates. The water level at Hirakud dam remains at 621.95 feet at 3 PM on Sunday against the full reservoir level of 630 feet.

“As the volume of flood water inflow has reduced, we hope to maintain our target level properly. There has been no major rain upstream of Mahanadi. Therefore, the flood situation is stable and there is no threat for the next three days,” said Engineer-in-chief of the Water Resources Department, Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty.

Around 3.4 lakh cubic feet per second (cusec) of water is now flowing at Mundali near Cuttack.

The water level of major rivers is on a declining trend, Mohanty said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)