The swollen Mahananda river flooded a number of wards in the twin municipalities of Englishbazar and Old Malda in Malda.

The river that skirts these civic areas was flowing a little below the danger level on Tuesday, said state irrigation department sources.

“In the past 24 hours, there has been an alarming rise of 17cm in the water-level of Mahananda. The river is now flowing at 20.63m, 37cm below danger level,” said an official.

In Englishbazar, at least five wards have been flooded by the river that spilled over its right bank.

Sumala Agarwala, chairperson of the board of administrators of the civic body, took stock of the situation on a boat.

“Nearly 2,000 families have been shifted to safer places. We are keeping tabs,” she said.

The situation is equally worrying in Old Malda municipal area on the left bank of the river. Bashistya Trivedi, chairperson of the board of administrators, said water from the Mahananda entered in four wards. “We are in touch with the civil administration so that relief can be provided to the affected people,” Trivedi said. In Old Malda civic area, around 500 families were affected, sources said,

In Nagrakata of Jalpaiguri district, around 200 residents from Manmohandhura went to the office of the BDO to demonstrate for a temporary bridge to restore road link washed away by floods.

They also blocked the road that connects the office with NH31C.

The demonstrators said that a few days back, a culvert over local stream Sukhani had been swept away, leaving around 30,000 people cut off from the block headquarters.

“We had to trudge through agricultural fields to reach the national highway and head for the block office and neighbouring areas. The block administration should immediately build a temporary bridge so that road connectivity can be restored,” said a demonstrator.

The blockade started at around 11am and halted movement of vehicles through Nagrakata. Later, representatives of the local panchayat samiti and the block administration spoke with them and assured necessary help. Finally, the blockade was withdrawn at around 2pm.

“We have prepared the estimate of a culvert. It has been sent to the district administration for approval,” said an official at the block office.