Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad is known for routinely attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for spreading “communal virus” across the country but now he blames the Hindu nationalist party for creating flood in his home state of Bihar and bringing large-scale destruction. Some 30 per cent areas of the state have been reeling under floods for the past five days.
“The BJP-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Jharkhand discharged huge amounts of water into the rivers flowing through Bihar without intimating the state government. This brought sudden floods in the state,” Prasad told the media on Thursday.
Alleging it all was done to “cause massive destruction” in Bihar, the RJD chief said the ruling Grand Alliance in the state would investigate the matter once the flood situation normalises and victims return home.
“We will probe as to why and in what circumstances Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand released waters into the rivers flowing through Bihar,” Prasad declared.
As per an official report, more than four million cusecs of waters were discharged into the Sone river [the second largest southern tributary of the Ganga] from Bansagar barrage in Madhya Pradesh and Mohammadganj dam in Jharkhand, suddenly raising the water level of the Ganga and its tributaries which ultimately caused floods in 12 districts of Bihar.
Foods have affected over three million people settled in 1,866 villages across 12 districts of the state over the past five days. The continuing floods have claimed 28 lives, damaged thousands of homes and destroyed standing crops in the state.
So far, more than 300,000 people have been evacuated and put up in 274 relief centres set up by the state government. The government has launched massive relief and rescue operations to help the people in distress. As per reports, the state government has also pressed 22 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and 1,918 boats into service to evacuate the trapped villagers and move them to the relief camps.
