PM announces `500cr relief for flood-hit Bihar
Lalu says Centre didn’t repair dams before floods
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced `500 crore relief package for Bihar, which is reeling under severe flood for the past several days.
The Prime Minister announced the relief package after he conducted an ariel survey of the flood- affected zones along with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.
During the review meeting after the survey, he also assured to constitute a high-level committee to assess the damage caused by the floods.
The Prime Minister made the aerial survey of four districts affected by the flood — Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria.
However, the relief package announced by the Prime Minister has not appeased the Opposition parties in Bihar. RJD chief Lalu Yadav, who has planned a ‘BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao’ rally to “expose BJP’s failure” on Sunday, questioned the PM’s aerial survey saying “the Centre ignored Bihar but after the damage has been done, Prime Minister is conducting an aerial survey.”
The RJD chief also dubbed the flood as a “man-made disaster” and blamed officials for ignoring the repair work of dams before the floods.
“Engineers ignored the repair work of the dams here. This is clearly not a natural disaster, engineers and officials are behind the flood,” he said.
According to a statement of the state disaster management department, flood waters in several parts of Bihar have started receding, which reduced the number of relief camps to 368 from 624. The death toll, however, has mounted to 418 and around 1.67 crore people in 19 districts have been badly affected.
According to a survey report, as many as 87 deaths have been reported from Araria district alone followed by Sitamarhi where 43 people lost their lives due to flood situation. At least 40 deaths were recorded in Katihar, 36 in West Champaran, 32 in East Champaran, 28 people died in Madhubani, 26 in Darbhanga, 24 in Kishanganj, 22 in Madhepura, 20 in Gopalganj and 16 deaths in Supaul.