Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced an immediate assistance of Rs 500 crore to Bihar for flood relief. He made this announcement in Purnia after an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Kishanganj, Araira, Purnia and Katihar districts.
After the aerial survey during which he was accompanied by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, the PM held a high level meeting with the Bihar Government officials. Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh gave a power point presentation to the PM and also submitted a charter of demand listing the estimated loses of lives, crops and collapse of bridges and damages of the roads.
The CM told the PM that this time flood ravaged those regions which are not known to be traditionally flood prone. He said the floods caused heavy damages to infrastructure including bridges, roads, canals and embankments. He particularly mentioned about the damage to Indo-Nepal border roads and demanded its immediate repair. The CM said a detailed report on the actual losses would soon be furnished.
The PM had agreement with Nitish that the floods in non conventional areas have caused immense damage and loss and said that soon a Central team would visit the affected areas for its assessment. He said in future focus should be given on institutional arrangements.
While announcing Rs 500 crore immediate assistance Modi said that he would consider the charter of demands for further help. He said from the PM relief fund Rs 2 lakh be given to the kin of each dead person and Rs 50,000 to injured people which will be apart from the relief provided by the State Government.
While thanking the PM for the immediate relief Nitish said the teams of NDRF, Army and Air Force personnel and choppers were engaged in the rescue and relief work. The central relief was of great help to provide relief to the victims and for their evacuation from the marooned areas to safer places.
Those who attended the meeting included Chief Secretary, DGP PK Thakur, PM’s additional principal secretary P K Mishra, under secretary Tarun Bajaj, water resources secretary Arun Kumar Singh, agriculture secretary Sudhir Kumar, secretary cabinet coordination Brijesh Mehrotra, disaster management secretary Pratyaya Amrit, secretary road construction Amrit lal Meena, CM’s principal secretary Chanchal Kumar and others.
State BJP president Nityanand Rai welcomed the PM’s relief aid and hoped that the centre would provide more assistance. He said an additional ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of dead apart from Rs 4 lakh from State government was a welcome move. He said the PM’s visit to flood affected areas showed that Modi was really concerned for the disaster and the help after the report of the central team would help rebuild the ravaged areas.
But the leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav made fun of the central help and tweeted, “Bihar has worst flood but Nitish Ji’s NDA PM gave only Rs 500 cr. However in 2008 UPA gave 1100 crore. What CM wud say on itIJ”