Bihar Flood Victims Hungry

HUNGRY FLOOD VICTIMS BLOCK BIHAR’S HIGHWAYS

By Manuwant Choudhary

Hunger forces flood victims in Bihar to block national highways leading to the capital Bihar, perhaps their only way to get their voices heard.
This is a first hand report of the plight of Bihar’s flood victims as fresh areas are flooded.
I was driving from my home in north Bihar to Patna and I personally witnessed eight road blockades within ten kilometers from Muzaffarpur to village Turkey, and initially there was no sign of the local police or administration.
Protestors said there was no way I would get to Patna today and being a journalist one is not used to taking a safe route I decided come what may I might as well experience not so much the misery of the flood victims but at least that of a traveler in flooded Bihar.
In todays Bihar the only way to get the government into action is not to call the politician or the police but the media and considering I myself was a TV reporter my first instinct was that this is national news and so I got the flash on all the news channels.
In 40 minutes a local Senior Divisional Officer accompanied by policemen arrived and got on with his job to clear the road.
He succeeded in clearing the first blockade within 5 minutes but then there was another blockade, then another, then another…
Hundreds of women blocked the road at the fifth blockade..”Water is in our homes, cattle have been washed away..where do we live? Straw homes have been destroyed…we do not have anything left to eat,” said Sakli Devi of village Madhaul.
Said Shivji Singh to the Muzaffarpur SDO, “If we did not block the roads..you sahibs will not have come but I understand even you have come because its your job. You must have got a telephone call from the chief minister. Where were you for five days? For five days these people have had nothing to eat.”
On assurances of food another road block was cleared but at the sixth road block it was a nightmare as even cellphone signals were weak and there was no sign of any police…just angry mobs..even children carrying thick sticks and threatening private vehicles.
And one agitator suddenly takes a decision that all those going to pray to Shiva on a pilgrimage be given right of way…so suddenly shouts of “Bol Bum” filled the air as vehicles forced their way out. A few Maruti 800s and autos were physically lifted aside to make way for the Bol Bum vehicles. And every time a Bol Bum vehicle found their passage out of the jam they would thank Shiva together amidst shouts.
It felt like jungle raj (Rule of the Jungle)
But Shiva helped us too and finally the lone SDO arrived and began talks in ernest.
Barely half a km from this we could see even Shiva fails when it comes to floods…the Bol Bum vehicles were stuck in yet another blockade – the eigth one and no these protestors were more angry – they knew no God, only hunger.
I spotted a dhaba (highway eatery) and took my chance…had a good meal and joined the blockade again.
Even a heavy downpour did not deter the protestors. It felt like being on a road on the Arabian sea.
Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar says a 100 kilo foodgrains is being given to each flood victim but at least in Muzaffarpur there is no sign of his governance.
A ten km route took me more than 6 hours to cross but for once my patience did not run out.

Rains Flood Patna

INCESSANT RAINS FLOOD PATNA,
RAINS IN FLOOD DISTRICTS TOO

By Manuwant Choudhary

Rains bring Bihar's capital to a virtual halt - even schools shut down due to waterlogging after a 24 hour incessant rains.
The parks in posh Patliputra Colony turn into lakes with water entering ground floor homes even in those areas where this did not happen in the past.
Kankarbagh also remains waterlogged and in areas where the roads are not flooded there are traffic jams as people try to get on with life.
Patna's main problem is waterlogging due to clogged drains and a municipality that only collects taxes but does no work. The current flooding also exposes the Bihar governments claims that Patna's drains have been cleared. The Patna High Court monitors such issues but even they have not been able to improve the situation here.
Forget solving Bihar's flood problems if any government is able to solve Patna's problems the people of this state will be thankful.
Heavy rains continue in the flood districts as well and as Indiavikalp predicted Bihar could be in for a second round of floods.
For any problem Bihar's politicians think a package is the solution. No, Mr. Nitish Kumar Bihar does not need chief ministers with a begging bowl. Bihar needs a chief minister who can act and who make his government do some real hard work.

BIHAR FLOOD ALERT

Heavy rainfall in the catchment area of Nepal as well as in the flood districts of Bihar could bring severe floods for the second time within 72 hours.
Just when flood waters had receded and stranded people could move to safer places the second flooding could bring more harship, especially since there is still very little relief work being undertaken.
According to the latest Bihar government figures 183 people have died in the floods, 40 in boat accidents while 102 animals have died. But these are only government figures. Photojournalist Vikram Kumar who is in flood affected Darbhanga for the past two weeks says the number of people who have died due to the floods will be more than a thousand. "Even now people are facing great hardship living on embankments and on the roads with no shelter."
An embankment breach at Naugachia has already paralysed National Highway 31 and even the district of Champaran could face a severe second round flood.

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS PHOTO:VIKRAM KUMAR

Bihar Floods

50 FEARED DEAD IN BOAT MISHAP
IN SAMASTIPUR, BIHAR

Early reports coming in suggest 50 persons have died in a boat mishap in Samastipur district in Bihar...its one of the many districts where people are fleeing the floods with no help from the government.

Market Journalism

Bombay Bomb Blast & Other Stories

By Manuwant Choudhary

Being a hack myself I usually prefer not to comment on my colleagues in the press and media but one truth is that I stepped aside from mainstream media when I found I couldn't stop the declining standards and the main excuse for all this is TRP and proximity of journalists to politicians and political parties.
If one gets the rating...journalists get cushy jobs, big shiny cars and airconditioned cabins - a big change from the early nineties when I set out to be a reporter.
I became a journalist because I love my country and while a student in Bombay, two incidents rocked this country - communal riots and the Bombay bomb blasts.
As a reporter with Bombay's Afternoon Despatch and Courier I got an opportunity to meet countless people involved in the riots and bomb blasts - ordinary people caught in an unending politics of hatred. Some genuinely involved in acts of terror, others just caught up in the mess indirectly because since they work for daily wages they can carry anything from flowers to RDX.
So when the judgements came I just watched like the rest of India but what the media showed us was not the full story but just Sanjay Dutt...
But todays Times of India was serious for a change when serious columnists who usually write in non-serious ways start writing seriously...like Bachi Karkaria's column "Sorry Sanju....this is not about you" "Instead of bombs and RDX the media reduced this whole thing to an unused gun."
And then Shobha De in Wake up India "China gobbled up Tibet..tomorrow it could gobble up our seven sisters..."
Wake up India...

Bihar Floods

FLOOD RELIEF IN BIHAR BEGINS....

Choppers begin flood relief for the first time in a month and what do they air-drop????
4 kilos Sattu (ground gram) and half a kilo of salt, no water and a candle that will burn only 15 minutes.
Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar now admits the flood scene is grim...
With almost 8 feet water in Darbhanga it clearly is a serious flood scenario but the rains have abated and hopefully things will be better in a few days.