‘Caught unprepared Nitish is now not talking abut dismantling Farakka Barrage’
Patna,(BiharTimes): When flood actually arrived to ravage a large part of north Bihar Nitish Kumar was busy changing horse in the mid-stream, that is changing alliance partner.
Now there is widespread complaints that the state government had made no advance preparation to fight the threat of flood. Like in 2007 and 2008 the administrative machinery had failed to live upto the expectation. In July 2007 when flood ravaged Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was busy undertaking a high-profile trip to Mauritius.
Reports coming from different districts say that hardly any embankment was repaired before monsoon and no prior relief and rescue arrangement was made to tackle flood.
But in off season the chief minister would indulge in rhetoric related to flood. As early as February last a big seminar was organized in Patna where he called for the dismantling of Farakka Barrage––an idea dubbed as “fantastic” by many independent experts.
Now he is talking about the Rs 1.25 lakh crore package announced by prime minister Narendra Modi exactly two years back. It never came, but Nitish is now hopeful that he would get the amount as he had switched over from RJD to BJP.
“He may now not talk about demolishing Farakka Barrage. But his government has been caught totally unprepared. No preparation was made though heavy shower and cloud-burst was forecast earlier and schools were closed on August 11,” Ranjeev, co-author of the book ‘Jab Nadi Bandhi’ told Bihar Times on Thursday.
He said that though it did not rain in Patna the entire Himalayan region from Brahmaputra to north Bihar witnessed heavy rain.
According to Ranjeev it is difficult to tackle flood caused by small rivers. In the era of climate change such rains are not something unexpected.
“When I visited north Bihar on July 22 rivers were already swollen because of rains in Bihar. Now rain all over the region from Brahmaputra to noarth Bihar has only increased the misery of the people. The government had simply failed,” he added.
He regretted that the Nitish government had in 2008 imposed ban on voluntary organizations from carrying out relief and rescue works.
