Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday drew the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi about alleged non-cooperation from Nepal in managing floods that have ravaged the state’s northern districts.
Rivers originating in the neighbouring country have inundated several districts of the state. At a meeting convened by the prime minister on flood situation in states hit by the calamity, Kumar said that the authorities in Bihar had “not been receiving full cooperation from Nepal in the past few years” and sought the Centre’s intervention on the matter.
“North Bihar gets ravaged by floods because of heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal. In accordance with an agreement between India and Nepal, the water resources department of Bihar conducts the flood management work in the bordering areas.”
Mr Kumar also raised the issue of Farakka barrage through which, he said, water now took longer time in its exit, The Hindu reported.
Mr Kumar further said, “This year, in Madhepura and in no man’s land in Madhubani district too, we did not get cooperation from Nepal in strengthening work on embankments. The officials from the Bihar government tried to solve the problem by speaking to Nepalese officials but they did not cooperate… the work which was to be completed by mid-May, was completed by the end of June… this needs to be focused”.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”hi” dir=”ltr”>माननीय प्रधानमंत्री की अध्यक्षता में देश में बाढ़ की स्थिति एवं बाढ़ प्रबंधन के लिए वीडियो कॉन्फ्रेंसिंग के माध्यम से आयोजित समीक्षा बैठक में शामिल हुआ।<a href=”https://t.co/x2xtDVEp38″>https://t.co/x2xtDVEp38</a> <a href=”https://t.co/MPXRfxw5zV”>pic.twitter.com/MPXRfxw5zV</a></p>— Nitish Kumar (@NitishKumar) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NitishKumar/status/1292806545990807553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 10, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
On Farakka barrage, he said “now water takes longer time in its exit from the barrage and therefore, Ganga’s water spread to wider areas for longer time… this needs to be discussed”.