Bihar: Amid Worsening Flood Situation, Hundreds of Affected People Protest Lack of Relief

Patna: Amid reports of the flood situation in North Bihar worsening on Monday after the breach of seven embankments, including the western embankment of the Kosi river, hundreds of flood victims staged a protest over lack of relief in Supaul district, one of the worst hit areas. Slogan-shouting villagers blocked the railway track in Supaul for hours, which disrupted train traffic.

The flood-affected persons also forcibly stopped a DEMU train going to Farbisganj from Saharsa between Tharbitia and Saraigarh railway station, demanding adequate relief to them. They alleged that local administration had failed to provide or distribute relief materials, mainly food.

“After the floodwater inundated villages and displaced villagers, who have taken shelter on higher places, they have been struggling for survival since last week. There is no relief and help from the government. The elderly and children have been crying for food, milk and water. Seeing this, we staged a protest and blocked the railway track,” Jogeshwar Mandal, one of the flood victims who took part in protest, told NewsClick from Supaul on Monday.

Munna Shah, another affected villager, said hundreds of displaced flood victims had been living under the open sky on the higher eastern embankment of Kosi. “We have no other option but to express our anger against the apathy of the administration and to draw their attention to our genuine demand of relief”, he said.

An official in the Supaul administration said that flood victims ended their protest after police and Railway officials assured them of adequate relief distribution from Monday.

The protest in Supaul has exposed the ground reality of relief and rescue operations in flood affected districts of the state, which is contrary to the claims of providing “adequate” relied being made by the BJP-led NDA government, headed by Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal-United.
 

Last week, too, there were reports of protests in various places by flood victims over lack of adequate relief, including dry rations, plastic sheets, etc.

As per reports reaching here from different flood-affected areas, flood victims have been facing great difficulties without foods, water and milk. Hundreds of people are stranded in their houses in marooned villages and several have been seen on thatched and bamboo rooftops, waiting to be rescued by
the NDRF-SDRF (national and state disaster relief) teams.

According to senior officials of the Bihar Disaster Management Department (DMD), the flood situation was grim in 12 districts, including Supaul, Darbhanga, West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Madhubani, Saharsa, Sitamarhi, and Sheohar on Sunday. The situation worsened on Monday after breach of embankments and seepage at several places.

More than 1.5 million people have been affected by the floods in the state.

The DMD deployed six additional NDRF teams on Monday for the relief and rescue operations. Earlier, 12 NDRF teams and 22 SDRF teams had been deployed in the flood-affected districts.

Some officials of the Bihar Water Resource Department (WRD) said Kosi breached its western embankment near Bhubhol village under Kartarpur block in Darbhanga district on late (12 .45 a.m) Sunday night. This inundated dozens of villages and heavily damaged houses, including brick ones, and destroyed standing paddy crops. The Bagmati river breached its embankments in Sitamarhi and Sheohar districts and Gandak river breached its embankment in West Champaran.

The Kosi, Bagmati and Gandak rivers have wreaked havoc in large areas as the floodwater spread has left hundreds of villages marooned, damaged standing crops, snapping roads, washing away small bridges.

According to an official update by WRD, a total of 6.61 lakh cusecs of water was released from the Birpur Barrage on Kosi till late September 28 night. All 56 sluice gates of the barrage were opened. Similarly, 5.62 lakh cusecs were released from the Valmikinagar Barrage on the Gandak river on September 28. All 36 sluice gates of the barrage were opened.

WRD officials admitted they had not expected the water levels to rise to astronomical levels, which forced the release of water from barrages in such a way by the end of this month when the monsoon is already retreating.

"Record release of water from barrages put heavy pressure on the river embankments and resulted in breach at several places", a retired chief engineer of WRD said here.

A quick glance at the official records of WRD shows that the release of water from Birpur Barrage on September 28 is the highest after 1968 when 7.88 lakh cusecs of water was released. Similarly, release of water from the Valmikinagar Barrage on the Gandak river is the highest after 2003.

According to WRD’s website, Bihar is the most flood-affected state, accounting for close to 17.2% of the total flood-prone area in the country. Out of 94.16 lakh hectare area, 68.80 lakh ha (76% of North Bihar and 73% of South Bihar) is flood-prone. At present, 28 out of 38 districts in the state are flood-prone
 

The writer is a freelancer based in Patna, Bihar.