Patna: The flood situation turned grimmer on Monday as the rising waters in all major rivers caused massive devastation, damaging homes, washing away highways and destroying standing crops in several districts of Bihar.
Surging rivers also threatened Patna, the capital of Bihar state, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured all support to the state.
“Centre assures total support in the rescue & relief operations. I hope the situation in the affected areas normalises at the earliest,” the PM tweeted today. He added the Home Minister was closely monitoring the situation.
At least 40 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated as floods hit vast swathes of central and eastern India in recent days, officials said on Monday.
Days of heavy rain have caused the Ganges River and its tributaries to rise above the danger level during the past 48 hours in about 20 districts of the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Officials said at least 17 people have died in Madhya Pradesh, 14 in Bihar and nine in Uttar Pradesh over the weekend because of drowning, electrocution or injuries from collapsed houses.
Floods which have badly affected populations settled in around 12 districts of the state have incidentally been caused by heavy rain in neighbouring states. The situation worsened further following heavy discharge of water into Sone river from Rihand Dam in Uttar Pradesh and Bansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh which ultimately caused the Ganges and its tributaries to swell alarmingly.
The overall situation is underlined by the fact that the overflowing Ganga, along with Sone and Punpun rivers, have been constantly threatening Patna for the last three days, leaving the state administration in a tizzy.
The panic is such that senior officials such as chief minister Nitish Kumar and disaster management department secretary Vyasji have conducted separately aerials survey of Patna to review the flood situation. Many say the prevailing situation in Patna reminds them of the deadly 1975 floods which caused massive destruction to the state capital.
“Right now the water level in Ganga is stagnant but it may rise further as the water discharged into the Sone river from Bansagar dam may reach the city soon. “We are quite alert to the whole situation,” Kumar told the media after holding a meeting with senior officials on Sunday evening.
The chief minister further appealed to the huge population settled in the river beds to flee homes and take shelter at safer places, apprehending further rise in water level of the river. But many have refused to flee their flooded homes as don’t want to part with their cattle. “I have fled mu home but my cattle are still trapped there. I don’t know how I will survive,” said Ranjeet Rai, a resident of Patna district.
On Sunday, the chief minister conducted an aerial survey of the flooded areas in Bihar and ordered the launch of a massive relief and rescue operation. The government has pressed into service nine teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and four teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to help the villagers in distress. Authorities have also pressed into service more than 1,300 boats to ferry villagers trapped in their flooded homes.
So far, more than 20,000 villagers have been rescued and put up in 100 relief centres set up by the state government. The state government has made all kinds of arrangements at the relief centres and also arranged for separate toilets for men and women.
As the overall flood situation remains alarming, the chief minister demanded removal of Farakka barrage over the Ganga river, blamed for recurring floods in the state.
“The main reason behind recurring flooding is siltation in Ganga, apparently caused by the Farakka dam. The siltation has left the river shallow as a result of which even a little rain in the catchment areas or discharge of water in the river leads to flooding,” Kumar told the media in Patna yesterday, urging the centre to take urgent steps lest the situation turn grave in days to come.
He said he had been raising the issue for long but the centre has ignored his demand.
