New Delhi, Sept 4 : The Centre continues to extend all possible assistance to Bihar Government for supplementing their efforts in managing the ongoing flood situation. The National Crisis Management Committee reviewed the situation today.

The Centre has deployed 37 Army columns, 13 helicopters, 599 boats, 783 National Defence Reserve Force (NDRF) personnel, 7695 tents, ten satellite phones, four lakh drinking water bottles, ten water purifying plants for assisting the State in rescue and relief operations.

New Delhi - The Indian army Thursday said there was an acute shortage of tents to house hundreds of thousands of flood victims in the eastern state of Bihar, news reports said.

The army, tasked with relief and rescue operations, has been able to send only 500 tents adequate for accommodating 5,000 people, the IANS news agency reported.

This was due to a shortage resulting from sending 1,750 tents to earthquake-hit China in May.

The number of tents was inadequate, with some 3.5 million people being affected or displaced by floods triggered after the monsoon-driven Kosi river changed course.

Saharsa (Bihar), Sep 4 : Authorities and self -help groups have stepped up relief work and set up community kitchens in flood-hit Saharsa district of Bihar.

The district is among the worst affected areas in the state ravaged by the Kosi river.

The state government is endeavouring to create make shift shelters for the people who have lost their houses in the devastating floods.

Many voluntary groups have also come forward to mitigate the miseries of the victims and provide them food.

Patna, Sept. 4 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that flood-affected state was toying with the idea of providing fodder for its starving cattle.

Kumar made an aerial survey of the flood-ravaged regions along with a top official of the state''s animal husbandry department on Wednesday.

He said providing fodder was on the government''s priority list along with other mitigating measures for the flood victims.

New Delhi, Sept 3 : The three wings of defence services the Army, Navy and Air Force get together for relief and rescue operations in Bihar.

They have stepped up efforts to rescue hundreds of thousands of people marooned by floods.

Addressing a news conference in New Delhi Air Commodore G. S. Cheema, Principal Director of Transport and Helicopter Operations said the Air Force is involved in lifting boats carrying marooned villagers from remote areas.

New Delhi, Sep 3 : The Centre has assured all possible assistance to the Bihar government in the wake of the ongoing flood relief and rescue operations and a high level Central team has offered the help of Army engineers and the Border Roads Organisation for repair of the Bheem barrage on river Kosi where the breach took place.

A high-level team of the officials from the Centre lead by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar met the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior state officials in Patna on Tuesday.