Unruly scenes in Lok Sabha over Bihar floods

NEW DELHI, AUG. 6. Unruly scenes prevailed in the Lok Sabha for half an hour today with ruling as well as Opposition members from Bihar repeatedly storming the well, saying the people are in the grip of a severe flood and little is being done to provide relief to them.

In the midst of a pandemonium during the zero hour, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) members alleged that the Centre was not providing funds to the State Government to tackle the flood situation, while BJP and Samata Party members complained that the RJD Government had failed to protect the people.

In a bid to pacify them, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said the Water Resources Minister, Mr. Arjun Sethi, had tabled a statement on the floods in different parts of the country. Mr. Chandra Shekhar alleged that the statement had not mentioned anything about Bihar and it had only given historical facts as to what was done in the past to protect the people.

Angry members returned to their seats only after Mr. Mahajan assured that a Central team would visit Bihar this week to assess the damage. The Business Advisory Committee would meet tomorrow and fix a date for discussion of the situation.

Alleging that the Centre was discriminating in granting funds to the States, the RJD leader, Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, alleged that not a ``single paisa'' of grant had been made to Bihar, while Orissa received a huge grant to face the floods.

Mr. Rajesh Ranjan (Independent) demanded an inquiry into the breaches of embankments in Bihar.

Mr. Sethi, in his statement, said the most practical approach in flood management was to provide a reasonable degree of protection against damages at economic cost through a combination of structural and non-structural measures.

- PTI

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All-party meet planned

By K. Balchand

PATNA, AUG. 6. The Bihar Chief Minister, Ms. Rabri Devi, has decided to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the floods and drought in the State.

With the death of two persons on Monday in police firing on violent flood victims, the toll in flood-related deaths has gone up to 20. The floods have affected over a million people in eight districts, damaging about 25,000 houses and crops worth more than Rs 10 crores.

Though the State Government maintained that adequate funds had been released for relief with specific directives to the district officials, clashes have also been reported from other areas, including Gopalganj, home district of the Chief Minister. The Army's relief operations have been limited more or less to Gopalganj, the worst affected district. Reports from various districts, however, speak of step-motherly treatment meted out in relief.

The all-party meeting will discuss the failure of the monsoon and the delay in transplantation of paddy in over 10 districts. The State Government has ordered for high yielding varieties of seeds and five hours of power for irrigation purposes, but its immediate concern pertains to the problems relating to anti-flood work, relief and rescue and post-flood assistance.

With the situation worsening every year, the damage has been mounting. The official figures put the death toll during the past five years at over 900 - an average 175 deaths annually - and damages to property exceeding Rs. 3,500 crores.

The developments in Nepal and the consequent stepped up activities of the Maoists there, has hampered anti-flood work. The State Government had to abandon its anti-erosion and embankment strengthening works following two incidents in the Nepal side of the projects on the Gandak and Kosi rivers during the second and third week of July.

In one incident, the Nepalese authorities stopped the engineers and officials of Bihar from going to the project site on the ground that they could not guarantee protection, while in the other, the people of Nepal obstructed the officials.

The Water Resources Development Secretary, Ms. Radha Singh, had brought this to the notice of the Centre and the Indian Embassy in Nepal urging them to impress upon Kathmandu to provide necessary protection for routine inspection and protection works.

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