Date:27/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/27/stories/2008082755911500.htm

National

BJP’s plea

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that the floods in Bihar be declared a national calamity. It urged the Prime Minister to intervene to ensure that the Army and the Air Force came to the rescue of lakhs of people who were marooned and in danger of drowning.

Party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said that India must talk to Nepal and work out a way to repair the breach in the Kosi Dam.

Mr. Prasad said reports suggested that there was a three kilometre-long breach on the Kosi dam in the Sursuri district of Nepal. He alleged that a few weeks earlier when engineers from Bihar went there for annual maintenance work, they were beaten up and sent back without being allowed to do their job.