Patna,(BiharTimes): The Justice Rajesh Balia Judicial Inquiry Commission report on Kosi floods of August 2008 has indicted the then Nitish Kumar government for posting a person found guilty of serious misconduct in 2005 as the chief engineer. It also mentions that the engineers and other employees posted at Birpur or eastern embankment of Kosi had no prior experience in flood-fighting and were inefficient. It states that the high-level committee on Kosi failed to monitor anti-erosion work.

The 750-page report was tabled by the Manjhi government in both the Houses of the state Assembly on Friday, the last day of the session.

The Commission was supposed to give its report within six months it took five and a half years and submitted it in February. The state government took five months to table it in the House. In fact it was the BJP leader Nanad Kishore Yadav, who a few days back raised the issue in the state Assembly forcing the chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, to make the announcement about tabling the report in this very session.

The Kosi Afflux Bund breached in Kusaha, Nepal, on August 18, 2008 and devastated several districts of Bihar, leading to the death of thousands of human being and cattle.

Several factors were responsible for the delay in the submitting of report. The report says it got its office in January 2009. The secretary of the Commission had to be changed thrice. Allotment of staff took a major portion of 2009 and some staff was allotted in 2011.

The Commission report also said that several documents it sought from the government were given partially or not given at all. Several letters by the Commission seeking information went unanswered. In 2012 the Commission summoned 46 officials to cross-examine them.

The report said: “If people are to be saved from the wrath of Kosi or similar catastrophes, it is high time the WRD made serious efforts to correct the system of river administration.”

The Commission found an unsatisfactory alarm system at work in Kosi. There is no practice of sending an alarm to the people who have settled near the threatened area. The situation had become grave by August 15. Yet, no flood-fighting work was done even on August 16. Nor any warning was given to the people on the night the bund breached, it said.

The report said the field engineers had been sending wireless messages that pressure on the embankment had increased.

“The situation further bad due to increase of pressure on the spurs,” a wireless message said, but there was no response from the WRD headquarters in Patna. On August 12 evening, there was a wireless message, saying “serious condition, erosion increased.” On August 13, another message received at Patna said, “situation very much alarming”.

“Serious situation” was reported on August 16 too. Another telegram the same day said, “River furious. There is no chance of recovery”.

According to report before the breach took place, another wireless message sent to Patna read, “Very serious, condition has reached beyond control.”

Yet another message that said “serious and SOS” on August 17 was also ignored.

The Walia Commission report also said the whole task force at the site during the most crucial period of the flood-fighting operation appeared to be leaderless. Highly inexperienced and inefficient engineers were posted at Birpur or eastern embankment of Kosi. Posting of such engineers was a major reason for faulty anti-erosion work and slack and inadequate flood-fighting efforts.

The Commission also quoted two former WRD principal secretaries Ajay Nayak and Afzal Amanullah who admitted before the Commission that the “engineers posted at Birpur and eastern embankment were not worthy of handling the crisis.”