Rain Alert in Patna, Patna Rain Forecast Updates: Areas like Rajendra Nagar and Kankarbagh remain submerged for the eighth day on Friday, and with the weather department issuing an alert for heavy rains in the next couple of days the situation is likely to worsen. Rajendra Nagar, one of the worst hit areas, is under four feet of stagnant water adding to the misery of locals. Though the administration said it has brought in heavy duty pumps to flush out water, situation has not improved much. There also have been reports of theft in locked houses under Kadamkuan police station area.
The heavy rains have claimed 73 lives so far. People who were taking shelter at the roof are now leaving their homes. Several people have alleged that there was no arrangement from the government to provide drinking water and food.
However, the administration has been saying that officials are out on roads and streets to help the affected people. The first floor of several homes in Rajendra Nagar and Kankarbagh are still submerged.
Live Blog
It 's been a week since several areas in Bihar capital city Patna are under flood waters. Relief and rescue work is continuing but water level in areas such as Rajendra Nagar and Kankarbagh remains is yet to recede. NDRF, SDRF teams are providing food, drinking water to those stuck. However, locals have accused the administration of doing little to help them.
Tejashwi Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Yadav's younger son, was spotted in Haryana campaigning for his sister's husband even as Patna continues to reel under unprecedented floods. READ MORE HERE
In a tragic incident, at least two people were killed and seven others were still missing after their boat which was travelling from Malda in West Bengal to Katihar in Bihar capsized in Mahananda river late on Thursday. Search and rescue operations by SDRF and other agencies are underway.
In a tragic incident, at least two people were killed and seven others were still missing after their boat which was travelling from Malda in West Bengal to Katihar in Bihar capsized in Mahananda river late on Thursday. Search and rescue operations by SDRF and other agencies are underway.
Woes in Patna Rajendra Nagar refuses to end with the area still submerged under four feet of stagnant water. With the weather department predicted more rains, situation is likely to worsen. People , stuck on the roof of their houses, could be seen clamouring for drinking water and food. Though the state authorities are supplying food packets in areas hit by flood, the efforts have proved to be too little.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called up his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar and offered help to the rain-hit state where at least 73 people have so far died. "Expressing concern over the situation, Patnaik spoke to Nitish Kumar over phone and offered all possible help to Bihar government in its efforts to manage the floods," an official at the Chief Minister's Office said.
BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav, who on Wednesday night fell into a shallow river while trying to reach a water-logged area in rural Patna, on Thursday accused the city administration of neglecting areas falling under his Pataliputra constituency.
"It seems the Patna administration cannot look beyond Kankarbagh and Rajendra Nagar. Water-logging has been there in Danapur but nobody seems to notice," rued Yadav, who had been the deputy Mayor in 1980s.
In Patna, normal life has come to a grinding halt in many parts of the city which have been water-logged for close to a week notwithstanding efforts being made by the district administration, along with the NDRF and the SDRF, to replenish stocks of food, medicines and drinking water of the stranded citizens.
Banks, shops, private hospitals and coaching institutes which abound in Kankar Bagh, Rajendra Nagar and Pataliputra Colonly the worst-affected ones have been closed for a week.
Death toll soared to 73 on Thursday in incidents related to torrential rainfall which has created a flood-like situation in 15 districts of Bihar, including the state capital, news agency PTI reported.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has lost his cool in the face of persistent queries from a journalist about the inundation of Patna due to heavy rain and shot back asking whether there was similar outrage when Mumbai suffered a deluge and floods disrupted normal life in the USA. The incident took place on late Tuesday night when Kumar was wading through knee-deep water to survey an inundated area of the city.
The NDRF and state disaster response forces are using 1,124 boats to rescue people stranded due to heavy rains. They have already evacuated 69,752 people from water-logged areas, said a PTI report.
The NDRF said that even though the Indian Meteorological Department has issued an orange alert, the situation in Patna and 5 other districts of Bihar was normal. "This is good for relief and rescue operations. NDRF teams will continue to work till life returns back to near normal," SN Pradhan, DG NDRF was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The Congress party slammed the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government of Bihar for "mishandling" the flood situation in the state, alleging that such a situation had arisen as "no work" had been done in the last 15 years to ensure a clear drainage system. The Congress in-charge of Bihar, Shakti Singh Gohil alleged that corruption was the reason for the situation that Bihar finds itself in.
An 'orange alert' has been issued by the weather department for Patna in view of bad weather conditions. It said that heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to lash the capital once against on Thursday and Friday.
Food packets have been air-dropped in the affected areas by two helicopters of the Indian Air Force.
The Patna Municipal Corporation said the it is working to flush out water from inundated localities with the help of three heavy duty pumps brought in from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
JD(U) secretary general and chief spokesman K C Tyagi said that the government is doing its job urged the BJP leaders to not speak the language of the opposition. "Cities of Maharashtra and Gujarat have experienced similar problems after heavy rainfall. If the chief ministers there were then not dubbed a failure, why is Nitish Kumar being targeted," he said.
West Champaran MP and BJP's newly-appointed Bihar unit president Sanjay Jaiswal said that what has happenedin Patna is a case of administrative failure. The state government must review the situation, fix accountability and take exemplary action.
Union minister and senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh, a known detractor of Nitish Kumar, has said that NDA owed an apology to the people of Patna who have been voting for the coalition. "It is not a failure of the people of Patna. It is our failure. Residents of the city have reposed so much of trust in the NDA, especially the BJP. We owe an apology to them," he said.
In urban areas, 21.45 lakh people of 959 villages of 15 districts have been affected by the heavy rainfall and they are being provided relief at 45 relief camps and fed by 324 community kitchens. A total of 1,124 boats are being used to rescue the stranded population, the department said adding that 23 teams of the NDRF and the SDRF have evacuated 69,752 people from the water-logged areas.
The state capital was pounded by 342.5 mm of rainfall between September 27 and 30, as against the state average of 255 mm.
Union MoS for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that teams of Indian Council for Medical Research and National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme will visit patna soon to draw a roadmap for prevention of outbreak of diseases usually seen in water-logged localities.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar waded through water-logged streets, with his pyjamas folded up to knees, supervising rescue and rehabilitation work on late Tuesday night and urged people to have patience. Meanwhile, Union MoS for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey met people stranded in water-logged areas and doctors at the AIIMS, Patna.
Bihar has received an average rainfall of 207.6 mm between September 27 and 29, way above normal, and the figure for the state capital stood at 342.5 mm for the period. With a let-up in the showers since September 30, restoration work was on in full swing.
At least 55 people have died in rain-related incidents in Bihar following torrential showers that took place between September 27 and 30. Bhagalpur accounted for the maximum number of 12 casualties. The causes of deaths include drowning, house collapse, falling of trees and electrocution.
Rajendra Nagar is a posh locality in Patna. The roads in Rajendra Nagar are still submerged, forcing people to leave their homes. The water-logging has onyl added to the woes of the public. In Karnkarbagh, the situation is similar to the Rajendra Nagar. The first floor of several homes are still submerged.
The heavy rains last week had triggered floods in Patna. Several roads and chowks were submerged, throwing normal life out of gear. Hwever, water receded from many area after rains stopped since Saturday.
The IMD has issued al alert, predicting heavy rainfall in Patna and other districts of Bihar for the next two days. An 'organge alert' is still in place in view of the bad weather condition.