Bihar: Flood Victims Continue Protests in Several Affected Districts Over Lack of Relief

Patna: Angry over lack of relief and help from the state government, flood victims, who have been struggling to survive, continued to protest in North Bihar. On Friday, hundreds of protesting flood victims, demanding adequate relief and help, were lathi-charged in Muzaffarpur district, leaving some injured in the police action.

According to reports reaching here, the flood victims, shouting slogans against the BJP-led NDA government, led by Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United, blocked the Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi road and burnt tyres to express their unhappiness over official apathy toward them. Road traffic was disrupted for hours.

When the flood-hit villagers refused to end their protest, police
threatened them, which led to a clash with the police. Some angry flood victims pelted stones at the police and tried to chase them away. After that, the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse them. There was an unconfirmed report that police also opened fire but the district superintendent of police denied it.

The protest in Muzaffarpur has once again exposed the ground reality of relief and rescue operations in flood-affected, which is contrary to the government’s claims of providing “adequate” relief. 

On Thursday, too, hundreds of flood victims staged a protest in Saharsa district demanding relief and plastic sheets. They blocked the Saharsa-Darbhanga main road for hours. The protestors said most of them were displaced by the devastating floods and had been living under the open sky on higher roads and embankments. The government has failed to provide even plastic sheets to them, they said.

A local Hindi daily reported that flood victims had alleged that neither dry ration nor food was distributed among them.
 

Similar protests have also been reported from East Champaran, West Champaran, Purnea, Kishanganj, Araria, Madhepura, Darbhanga district.

As per reports reaching here from different flood-affected areas, flood victims, especially children and the elderly, have been facing a tough time without food, water and milk. Hundreds are still stranded in their houses in marooned villages.

Last week, too, hundreds of flood victims staged a protest and blocked rail tracks over lack of relief in Supaul district.

Meanwhile, the state government on Friday announced that it would provide Rs 7,000 each to the flood-affected people by October 9, ahead of Durga Puja. The amount will be disbursed directly into beneficiaries' bank accounts via Direct Benefit Transfer.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday visited some of the worst-hit areas in Darbhanga and inspected relief works, including community kitchens and a dry food packaging centres.
 

Three days ago, the Chief Minister had conducted an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas.

An official update from the Bihar Disaster Management Department (DMD) on Thursday night stated that 16.05 lakh people across 479 gram panchayats in 88 blocks of 18 districts have been affected. These districts include East Champaran, West Champaran,Araria, Kishanganj, Gopalganj, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Supaul, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur,Purnea, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saran, Saharsa, Katihar, Khagaria and Samastipur.

About 18,000 people have been evacuated to safer locations by NDRF and SDRF teams, and 14 relief camps have been set up, providing shelter to 6,350 displaced persons. The government has opened 451 community kitchens to provide food and had deployed 11 boat ambulances with mobile medical teams to provide health services in the affected areas, the DMD report said.

Last week, several districts were ravaged by floods after record volumes of water were released from the Kosi and Gandak barrages, following heavy rainfall in Nepal and north Bihar. However, subsequent embankment breaches have exacerbated the flooding and destruction,” said a Water Resource Department (WRD) official.

The flood situation continues to remain grim in North Bihar despite the fact that floodwater has started receding since October 3. Officials of WRD said last week the swollen rivers, including Kosi, Bagmati and Gandak, breached embankments at several places, inundating hundreds of villages, heavily damaging houses, and destroying standing paddy crops.

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.