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Centre offers to repair barrage on Kosi
Tribune News Service
IN TROUBLED WATERS: People wade through floodwaters with the help of a rope to safer places in Supaul district of Bihar on Wednesday. — PTI
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New Delhi, September 3
In an important decision, the Central Government today offered to repair the breached Bheem barrage on river Kosi, with the help of Army engineers and the Border Road Organisation (BRO). The breach has caused a lot of damage in northern Bihar. Notably, the Army engineers and the BRO have the experience of working under adverse conditions and in hostile terrain. The Army engineers opened the Hindustan-Tibet road in Himachal Pradesh within months after the Pareechu, a tributary of the Satluj, wrecked havoc in June 2005. The Central government also issued a notification to exempt customs duty on any item that will be imported for flood relief in Bihar. In addition, all basic excise duty will be exempted on goods donated or purchased out of cash donations for the relief and rehabilitation of people in Bihar. These exemptions shall be in force till February 28, 2009. Backed with strong experience in handling such tasks, the offer of the government of India to repair the damaged barrage has been conveyed to the Bihar government. This follows a visit by a Central government team led by Union cabinet secretary K.M. Chandersekhar and comprising the Defence secretary Vijay Singh to Bihar. The team met the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior state officials in Patna yesterday. The cabinet secretary apprised the CM of the ongoing relief operations carried out by the Armed forces and other central agencies and assured him that the efforts would continue in full swing. He has asked the state administration to provide the details of further assistance required by them. A spokesperson of the government said the Bihar CM appreciated the assistance given by the Armed Forces and desired that the main focus should be on rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. He also sought deployment of more columns of Army for evacuation and the Air Force for dropping of relief material. Bihar has also asked for more supplies of food, medicines and establishment of relief camps wherever the railway heads are available. The Central team also reviewed dropping of food packets by the Air Force personnel and evacuation of marooned persons by the different organisations and by the Army. Three water purifying machines, having a capacity of 6000 litres per day, have been sent to the state. The ministry of steel will supply 10 lakh galvanised iron (GI) sheets for construction of relief camps. Besides, around 4,500 armymen are involved in rescuing people while the Indian Air Force is plying 11 helicopters, 3 IL-76, 13 AN-32 and two Avro aircrafts for the purpose. Around 700 boats are in also in operation. The BSF has supplied speed and inflatable boats, rafts, highly sophisticated water crafts, scuba diving sets, life buoys, life jackets, floating pumps, dragon lights etc. A combined medical team of the Army and the BSF is also working round the
clock.
Religious biases ‘sink’ in floods
Saharsa/Purnia, September 3
The Kosi may have changed its course killing and displacing many in Bihar, but the river has also helped to “sink” religious differences as was evident in relief camps where RSS men were seen serving food to Muslims. Clad in khaki shorts and caps, they serve gram and flattened rice to Muslim flood victims in a relief camp at Saharsa. The camp being run by Seva Bharti, a Sangh Parivar outfit, at the zila school campus at Saharsa presents a rare but heartening sight. The devastation has helped to dissolve bitterness and differences. “Over a 100 people of my community have been taking shelter here for more than a week now and we have absolutely no complaint .... Life cannot be better than this in a relief shelter,” says Mohammed Salauddin, who fled Parba village in Madhepura district along with his family to escape the fury of floods. In another camp, a kilometre away, there was a joyous reunion. The prayers of Phulo Devi had been answered. Nago Paswan, her husband, working as a farmhand in faraway Punjab and had not visited their village in Murliganj in Madhepura for the last couple of years. He rushed home when he learned of the havoc caused by the floods but was stranded at Saharsa. As luck would have it, he met Phulo and his children Rinku, Mamta and Rahul at the relief camp.
Airlines asked to pitch in with relief
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 3
The Centre has directed all domestic airlines in the country to help in relief operations in Bihar by airlifting essential supplies to the capital of the flood-torn state. In view of the unprecedented floods in the state, a large amount of relief material and essential supplies is being transported to Patna. The Centre has also assured that airlines making unscheduled landings at Patna for relief operations will be accorded necessary clearance promptly. According to officials from the Civil Aviation Ministry, the ministry had directed the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to convene a meeting of all domestic airlines to ask them to provide help in transportation of essential supplies. Following this, the DGCA convened a meeting of all scheduled airlines on Tuesday in which representatives from Air India, Alliance Air, Jet Airways-JetLite, Deccan Aviation Ltd., Spicejet, IndiGo and MDLR Airlines participated. Representatives from the Bihar government were also present at the meeting. Airlines were asked to consider discounting freight rates for transportation of relief material like food items, medicines, clothing from voluntary organisations and NGOs. They have also been asked to advise their representatives at Patna to be in touch with the state government officials for quick transportation of relief from airports.
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