By Dev Raj
Patna: The Bihar government suspended seven engineers on Saturday after floods hit Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s native Nalanda district, affecting several villages and a large number of people.
Embankments at several places in Nalanda and neighbouring Jehanabad district were damaged after a sharp rise in the water level of the Falgu river. The breaches inundated farms and villages located in the neighbourhood. The suspended officials include one executive engineer and six junior engineers of the Water Resources Department (WRD).
"The engineers showed extreme negligence in maintaining the embankments along the Lokain and Bhutahi rivers in Nalanda and Jehanabad. They also wilfully flouted the directions of the department. We have suspended six of them, including an executive engineer," WRD Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said.
The suspended engineers included the executive engineer of Ekangarsarai executive engineer, and the junior engineer. Revealing that embankments were damaged at six places in Nalanda and Jehanabad districts, Choudhary asserted: "Public safety is of utmost importance and the government will not compromise on protection from floods. We have taken the damage to the embankments with utmost seriousness and taken action wherever negligence by our officials was found."
The minister directed the WRD officials to repair the embankments on war-footing. Additional teams of engineers and officials have been deployed to keep a watch on the flood situation, which could worsen due to heavy rains in the two districts and neighbouring Jharkhand.
Chaudhary had previously directed the department officials to repair and refurbish all embankments across the state, and also focus on filling up the holes made by rats, which has emerged as among the major reasons behind the breach of the bunds and embankments under the pressure of enhanced water level.
According to the state Disaster Management Department (DMD), the heavy rains in neighbouring Jharkhand over the past few days led to a sharp rise in the level of the Falgu river, due to which over 73,000 cusec of water was released from the Uderasthan Barrage in Jehanabad district.
"It led to the erosion of embankments at several places in Hilsa, Karai Parsurai, and Ekangarsarai blocks of Nalanda district, which led to the spread of floodwaters in the neighbouring villages," a communique by the DMD said.
One cusec or 'cubic foot per second' is around 28.32 litres of water flowing past a particular point in one second. The Falgu (also called Phalgu) river is formed by the merging of two hill streams Lilanjan (Niranjan) and Mohana, and eventually flows into the Punpun river, which is a tributary of the Ganga. The DMD has deployed two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to help in rescue and relief operations in the flood-affected areas.
Nalanda District Magistrate Kundan Kumar told ETV Bharat that dry ration and polythene sheets were being distributed among the affected population as part of the relief operations.
"We have also distributed over 101 quintals of fodder for cattle, and are running community kitchens at four places to provide meals to the affected people," Kundan said.
