The Hindu : National : `Declare Bihar flood havoc a natural calamity'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 14, 2004

National

National

`Declare Bihar flood havoc a natural calamity'

By K. Balchand

INGENUITY TO THE FORE: Amid the flood havoc around, this father hauls his two children to safety at Najirpur village of Muzaffarpur district in north Bihar. - Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

PATNA, JULY 13. The Bihar Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, has urged the Centre to declare the flood havoc in the State as a natural calamity with almost the entire north and eastern parts being submerged and the district administrations unable provide succour to those living virtually under the open sky.

The Chief Minister has sought more Central help in addition to the assurance given by the Prime Minister and the Rs. 30 crores the Centre had released under the Calamity Relief Fund.

The condition is desperate in Darbhanga town though the IAF helicopters continue to drop relief and other materials.

The copters had also rescued at least 50 people from the Air Force colonies.

0They were brought here and taken to the base at Bihta from where they would be taken to Gorakhpur till the water receded fully.

All educational institutions have been closed in Darbhanga district, as all its blocks, except one, have been submerged.

Six hundred students of the Navodaya Vidyalaya in Pachauri village of Keoti block have been marooned and they have been shifted to the top floor.

Akashvani too has suspended its broadcast with floodwaters inundating its office.

Looting spree

Anarchy has broken out here with desperation driving the people to loot.

They stormed the bazaar samiti, bashed up traders, and took away rice, wheat and cereals, besides potatoes and onion.

The administration seems to have turned a deaf ear to the pleas of traders to come to their rescue. The looting spree perhaps was a corollary to the administration's appeal to the people to fend for themselves as it was not in a position to either evacuate those trapped or marooned or supply adequate ration.The situation is almost the same in other districts too with the officials seeking the Army's help. Rivers continued breaching the embankments and washed away houses and the fleeing people.

Villagers have also exchanged fire on whether or not a particular embankment should be cut to release the flow of water.

At least two such incidents have been reported from East Champaran districts.

While those living inside the embankment wanted to go in for breaching so as to save themselves from floodwaters, those outside were against it.

The death roll has risen to 50. One person had died for want of food in East Champaran district and snakebite, 13 in Motihari, Samastipur, Madhubani, Araria and Forbesganj.

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