The swollen Baghmati river in Darbhanga. Photo by Ashok Sinha
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By Dheeraj Sinha*
Patna: The flood situation in Bihar aggravated on Friday after Gandak river breached the embankment at a village in Sangrampur block of East Champaran district of Bihar on Thursday night.
As per reports, about 25 feet stretch of the main embankment was breached at Nihalu Tola in Sangrampur block under the Areraj subdivision of the district due to heavy pressure on the embankment.
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Teams of the NDRF rescued over 2,000 people from the affected villages so far.
The Gandak river is in spate following incessant downpour in the catchment area of Nepal and two districts of East and West Champaran. Heavy discharge of water into the river from Valmikinagar barrage has only compounded the problem. The state disaster management department had already rushed four teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and rescued marooned people to the safer place. District magistrate Shrisat Kapil Ashok, SP Navin Chand Jha also visited the area to take stock of the situation.
Presently, 10 districts- Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Khagaria, East Champaran and West Champaran- are affected by the floods. More than 6.36 lakh people are reeling under the flood water in the state.
Meanwhile, the state government has decided to deposit Rs 6,000 in the bank account of each affected family under direct benefit scheme to prevent any role of middleman.
On the other hand, Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who had toured districts such as Darbhanga and Madhubani and distributed food among the flood-hit people at many places, accused the Nitish government of paying no attention to the plight of flood-hit people. He alleged that people had been cramped in relief centres, demonstrating scant respect to the social distancing norms, so necessary in view of alarming rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the state.
*The writer is a senior journalist
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