Nepal uncooperative in managing floods: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 10

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has alleged noncooperation from Nepal in managing the flood situation on common rivers during a meeting on the flood situation chaired by Prime Minster Narendra Modi.

Reports about Nepal blocking access to Indian engineers and delaying repair works have been appearing intermittently but the Ministry of External Affairs, given the frayed diplomatic ties with Kathmandu, has so far downplayed these charges of obstructionism.

Now with many districts in Bihar under water due to breaches in embankments on the Kosi River, Nitish Kumar said his government was “not receiving full cooperation from Nepal in the past few years”.

Kumar was grounding his compliant on persistent noncooperation from Nepal to a pattern over several years rather than in the present diplomatic skirmishing that began in November last year with Indian releasing a new map that included areas claimed by Nepal.

“North Bihar gets ravaged by floods because of heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal. In accordance with an agreement between India and Nepal, the water resources department of Bihar conducts the flood management work in the bordering areas,” said Nitish.

Flood situation grim

The flood situation in the state remained grim on Monday with 20,000 more people affected by the calamity in 16 districts in the past 24 hours, a Disaster Management Department bulletin said.

The total number of flood-affected people in the state has risen to 74.40 lakh, while deaths caused due to the deluge stood at 24.

As many as 74.19 lakh people were hit by the calamity and 23 deaths were reported till Sunday evening.

However, there is a ray of hope with a reduction in the number of flood-hit people in a day, an official said.

“The number of fresh people getting affected by flood has reduced to 20,000 in past 24 hours with merely 11,800 people residing in just seven relief centres,” a Disaster Management Department official said.

The number of community kitchens has also declined to 1,239 from 1,267 on Sunday, he said.

“For us, this phase of flood is over and things will improve in days to come if nothing major untoward incident happens,” he said.

Darbhanga reported the highest number of flood-related deaths at 10, followed by Muzaffarpur at six, West Champaran at four and two each in Saran and Siwan, the bulletin said.

The 16-flood affected districts are Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, West Champaran, East Champaran, Khagaria, Saran, Samastipur, Siwan, Madhubani, Madhepura and Saharsa.

A total of 5.08 lakh people have been evacuated from the deluge-hit areas so far during joint rescue operations conducted by 20 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 13 teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), it said.

Rivers such as Baghmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamlabalan, Adhwara, Khiroi, Ghaghra are flowing above danger levels while the Ganga is also flowing 15 cm above the danger mark at Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur.

However, the water level of the Ganga has declined by a few centimetres at several places like Munger, Bhagalpur, Digha ghat and Gandhi ghat (both in Patna), the Water Resources Departments bulletin said.

The MeT Department here has forecast light to moderate rain on Tuesday in the catchment areas of all rivers flowing through Bihar. PTI