With the submergence of thousands of villages in nine districts in Bihar appearing inevitable due to an alarming rise in the water levels of the Sone and the Ganga, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday conducted an aerial survey to oversee the preparations for evacuation and relief distribution.
“Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed at several sites and the rise of water levels is being closely monitored. There is little to worry as the situation is under control,” said Mr Kumar on his return.
“The district administrations and all government agencies concerned have been alerted to deal with the situation effectively,” he added.
Scores of villages in some districts in southern Bihar submerged on Sunday and hundreds others saw water reaching threateningly close after huge quantities of water — said to be over 6 lakh cusecs — were suddenly released from the Bansagar dam on the Sone river in Madhya Pradesh for over 12 hours till Saturday.
The release led to the flow of water from the Indrapuri barrage in Rohtas district rise from 9,460 cusecs on Friday morning to 4.29 lakh cusecs on Saturday afternoon, said officials.
The embankments of the Sone were put under close vigil of the water resource department (WRD) engineers and the river’s two canals in Patna and Ara districts were closed as a safety measure on Sunday. According to water resource department principal secretary Afzal Amanullah, the release of such high quantities of water from the Bansagar dam was the highest since 1975.
Water levels in the Ganga rose steeply mainly due to heavy rains in its catchment areas in Uttar Pradesh, said officials.
The districts currently facing a near-certain flooding are Patna, Saran, Vaishali, Bhojpur, Begusarai, Samastipur, Katihar, Bhagalpur and Khagaria. People in six villages in Patna’s Maner block were frightened to see river waters slowly entering their villages on Sunday afternoon.
WRD sources said while the NDRF teams had started evacuating people in some areas, Indian Air Force helicopters could be deployed for speedier evacuation on Monday if the water levels did not subside.