Heavy rains cause floods, destroy 8 bridges in Jharkhand

Incessant rainfall over the past few days has caused heavy flooding which has damaged and washed away at least eight bridges in Jharkhand, authorities said.

The bridges were washed away in Palamu, Garhwa, Chatra and Gumla districts.

Cracks appeared in the Jaiprakash Narayan Dam located at Tandwa in Chatra district.

Water started gushing out and people started to evacuate the area on their own, the authorities said.

Locals informed the Chatra district administration and a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team. But when no help reached for five hours, former Chatra legislator Janardhan Paswan and police station in-charge Madhusudan Modak themselves joined the locals and carried stones to block the flow of the water from the dam leak.

"We got no help for several hours from the government," said Mukund Baitha, a local resident.

Recently, Rs 50 lakh was spent on repairing the dam. The work was carried out by the state irrigation department.

The leak in the dam has raised questions over the functioning of the department,a worried people said.

Since 2010 more than two dozen bridges have been destroyed in the rains. Most cases have been registered in Gumla district. The prominent bridges which were destroyed include Kamdara Balaghat Bridge, which was built at Rs 2.91 crore, and Jolo Ghat bridge constructed at Rs 5.65 crore.

--IANS

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