Ganga reaches danger level mark in Bihar

As the water level of the Ganga and many other rivers reached the danger level mark at many places in Bihar, the Water Resources Department (WRD) today cautioned about floods in the state.

WRD secretary Dipak Kumar Singh told PTI, "There is a need to remain watchful about floods till September 10 across the state because Ganga has reached danger level mark at most of the places. This obstructs discharge or offloading of water into it by its tributaries. It may worsen the situation."

Apart from Ganga, rivers like Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamla Balan and Adhwara group of rivers have swelled above the danger levels at various places in the state. Singh said the breaches in the embankments of Kamla Balan river in Ghanshyampur block of Darbhanga district and Gandak river in Bagaha block of West Champaran district, which had led to severe floods, have been successfully plugged in and work to strengthen them is being conducted on war footing.

The WRD Secretary said that work is on to restore the breached embankments of Gandak and Bagmati rivers in Gopalganj and Sitamarhi districts, respectively.

He added that all other embankments in the state are secure. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, accompanied by WRD Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary conducted an aerial survey of flood affected Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura districts today to get a first a first hand account of the situation in the Kosi river belt. Manjhi also held a meeting with the senior officials of different departments and reviewed relief operations in the flood-affected area.

The Disaster Management Department (DMD) has launched full-fledged relief operations in flood-hit areas of Bihar as evacuation of critically affected people came to a halt and there were no reports of further deaths or inundation.

DMD Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Vipin Kumar Rai said, "the focus has now shifted to food grain and relief money distribution. The list of flood affected families is being prepared and each of them is being given one quintal grains and Rs 2,000 compensation." Rai said DMD teams have already distributed 298 quintals of rice and wheat, 2794 quintals of flattened rice, 42 quintals of gur (jaggery) and 7 quintals of 'sattu' (roasted gram powder) and 23,326 polythene sheets among the flood-affected families.

Altogether 14 districts - Nalanda, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Sheikhpura, Supaul, West Champaran, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Patna, Sheohar, Araria, Gopalganj and Khagaria districts have been hit by floods this time.

Of these, Nalanda, Darbhanga and Sheikhpura are the worst sufferers. Over 16 lakh people have been affected in the floods out of which 1.16 lakh have been evacuated.

The number of persons, which had swelled to 49,000 at the 133 relief camps, has gone down to 38,000 as many of them opted to go to stay with their relatives or return to their villages.

The floods have affected over 2 lakh hectares of agricultural land, including one lakh hectares of cropped land.The estimated crop damage is worth Rs 56.4 crore, according the DMD.