1,500 Leave Flood Camps as Varuna Eases; 2,690 Still Sheltered, 11 of 22 Camps Empty

About 1,500 people sheltered in Varuna-side flood relief camps returned home on Monday as water eased in parts of the belt, while 2,690 remained in camps and 11 of 22 camps stood empty, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Dr Sadanand Gupta said in the district’s latest relief accounting. The half-empty camp map is the new number set for this file. It is distinct from the District Magistrate’s earlier tour of Hukulganj and Dhelwariya camps and from the Chief Minister’s survey-and-aid orders earlier in the week.

The Monday return of roughly 1,500 people tracks the drop from a Sunday peak that local tallies had put near 4,048 people across 877 families toward a Monday band near 2,700 people and under 600 families before the ADM’s 2,690 still-in-camp figure. Exact family counts move with every evening register. The policy signal is clearer than any single register line: more than half the camp footprint has emptied, and a large residual caseload remains.

Relief logistics published with the ADM update include more than 44,711 lunch packets, 4,653 milk packets and over 368 relief kits issued through the spell. Those are cumulative service numbers, not a claim that every remaining family has received a kit on the same day. Lunch and milk runs continue for the 2,690 who have not yet gone home.

Eleven empty camps out of twenty-two cut the administrative burden of staffing, cooking and sanitation at vacated school halls and community rooms. They do not close the flood file. Families still inside the other eleven sites are typically those whose houses remain wet, whose lanes stay cut, or who are waiting for a clearer signal that return will not mean a second evacuation if the Ganga or Varuna turns up again.

Dr Sadanand Gupta’s quoted role as ADM (Finance and Revenue) puts the numbers on a named officer rather than an anonymous district handout. Camp closure is a relief success only when return is voluntary and housing is actually dry. Forcing pace to empty halls would recreate the Hukulganj-style pressure that earlier tours were meant to calm with round-the-clock care orders.

School buildings used as camps need a second scrub before classes resume in full. Empty halls still carry the smell of mass cooking and wet bedding. District teams that have been issuing milk and lunch packets will next be judged on whether vacated campuses are cleaned and whether the remaining 2,690 get a clear path home without losing ration or medical follow-up.

The Varuna camp story on Tuesday morning is therefore a partial drawdown, not an all-clear. Fifteen hundred home, 2,690 still sheltered, eleven of twenty-two camps empty, and a logistics trail of lunch, milk and kits — that is the ADM’s board. The DM tour pack and the CM survey pack stay on their own shelves.