Kosi flood victims injured during protest in Bihar

Kosi flood victims and activists were injured on Thursday when police used force to disperse them during their protest here before the state assembly over the delay in rehabilitation of flood victims, police said.

Police arrested more than 200 protesters. Hundreds of Kosi flood victims, who included women, demanded their early rehabilitation and wanted the probe report to be made public.

"It was an issue...How could protesters gather, reach the prohibitory area in front of the state assembly, and stage protests," Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Jitendra Rana told IANS.

Mahendra Yadav, an activist working for Kosi flood victims, said police acted against victims and activists as if they were criminals.l

They were staging a peaceful protest to draw the attention of the state government over delay in rehabilitation of hundreds of thousands of flood victims, he added.

The Kusaha embankment near the India-Nepal border on the Kosi river was breached on August 18, 2008. Five districts of Bihar were flooded, killing at least 250 people and rendering nearly three million people homeless. Over 300,000 houses were destroyed and crops on at least 840,000 acres were damaged.