The sorrow of Bihar

Bihar has been known for floods. Every year the government has a daunting task of evacuating people from the flooded area. But, neither the state government nor the central government had ever taken appropriate tasks to tackle this situation. Many lose their families, many their lives. Crops worth many crores are lost. Yet, the government either at the state level or at the central level fails to deliver. So, who is responsible for the floods? Who should be held accountable for lost lives and damaged crops?

The river Kosi is also known as the “Sorrow of Bihar” as it has caused widespread human suffering in the past. This year it has created a record as it picked up an old channel that it had abandoned over a few centuries ago near the border with Nepal and India. More than 25 lakh people have been reported affected as the river broke its embankment at Kusaha in Nepal thus, submerging several districts of Nepal and Bihar (Bihar was worst affected). The worst affected districts of Bihar included Supaul, Araria, Saharasa, Madhepura, Purnia, Kathiar and parts of Khagaria and Bhagalpur.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Bihar floods as “national calamity” and announced immediate assistance of Rs.1,000 crore for rescue and relief operations and 1.25 lakh tonnes of food grains. Many individuals came forward to help apart from organisations and institutions. This has been a repetitive task every year. Is there no solution to end this? Will people of Bihar have to be dependent on others forever and face floods every year. Why don’t persons who are responsible for horrendous mistake held guilty and punished?

A blame game starts every year after such incidents. According to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, 2004 satellite image shows that the Kosi embankment had come under pressure four years ago at the same place where it breached the barrier on August 18 this year. The western channel of the Kosi was blocked and the eastern channel was under pressure. In 2004, Bihar was under RJD rule. So, did Laloo Prasad Yadav miss something during his tenure? The river embankment upkeep was either poor or did not receive the attention it should have from the then RJD government.
The Bihar CM had also urged External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to take up the matter with Kathmandu, a day before the embankment breached 12.9 km upstream of the Kosi barrage on the Nepalese side. But, Mr. Mukherjee got back to him saying that Nepal was preparing for the swearing-in of Prachanda as Prime Minister and there was no authority who could deliver immediately,

The maintenance of the Kosi embankment is the job of the Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC), set up in 1972, under the Ministry of Water Resources at the Centre. Bihar is only the implementing agency because the Kosi water is a subject of the Indo-Nepal treaty. So, can Bihar government blame the Centre for the failure. No. It is the duty of the state government to implement such policies that are beneficial for their public. If the Centre had refused to help, it should have taken the help of media to force the Centre to have a talk with the Nepal government (it is irony that media reported about the Bihar floods when the destruction had been done}. It should be noted that earlier, engineers from Bihar who had gone there to do maintenance work were not allowed to do so by the local Nepalese. At least, the blame game would have not started, as the true facts would have been there in front of everyone.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Water Resources Ganga Flood Control Commission Director Co-ordination S S Chaudhary says that he had written to the engineer-in-chief (North) Water Resource Department of Bihar on April 1, asking about flood protection works on the Kosi. He had also requested a copy of the estimate/scheme duly approved by competent authority together with relevant drawings for the work to be done on river Kosi in Nepal portion on the recommendation of Kosi High-Level Committee (KHLC) for the protection works before the flood of 2008. But, the Commission got no reply from the state government. Moreover, on August 15, the Union Ministry received a report stating that all the embankments in Bihar were safe for Water Resources.

Kosi is not the only sorrow of Bihar. The real culprits for the floods are our politicians. We are the people who often send them to legislative assemblies to represent us by giving them votes. The sorrow of Bihar therefore should be the politicians (and we ourselves) and not the river, which had given livelihood to many generations. Therefore, time has come for some hard decisions. Ministers and bureaucrats should come above politics.. But first, relief and rescue operations should be accorded top priority for two to three months and mega camps with a capacity to accommodate over 10 lakh people needs to be set up in each of the affected districts.