Though the real flood fury in Bihar is yet to unfold, miseries caused by the initial brush of Monsoon and heavy rainfall in Nepal, which led to inundation and waterlogging in many areas, has set off a war of words over Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s tweet on Wednesday.
“My sympathy with flood-affected people of Bihar. This disaster, at the time of a pandemic (Covid-19), is a big crisis. I appeal to Congress workers to extend their help in relief work. Each of our step should be for public help. This is the real Congress ideology,” Gandhi tweeted.
Not wasting time, Bihar water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha immediately responded on the social media platform with a list of the present state of rivers. “No river was flowing above the danger mark on Wednesday. But, I cannot help if people fail to differentiate between waterlogging and flood. The Bihar government is always on the ground at the time of crisis to ensure safety and relief to people. It does not do kite-flying on social media,” he wrote.
Jha, through another tweet, said the water resources department (WRD) team is working round-the-clock for protection from flood and keeping a constant vigil on the water level and embankments.
He also called out the Congress leader for not having “correct information” about the ground situation in Bihar. “Your tweet shows that either you are not provided with correct information about the situation on the ground, or you are not interested in knowing the real picture,” he tweeted.
He added, “Looks like you have been wrongly fed about ‘floods’ in Bihar. There is none yet and in wake of heavy rains we’re not ruling it out either… Kindly refrain from confusing people.”
However, the minister said the flood threat in Bihar was “real”, and it was not entirely due to heavy rains in the state. “The reason lies in Nepal and heavy discharge of water often causes waterlogging in some areas, but that cannot be termed as floods. We know the huge threat perception, and therefore the chief minister himself keeps monitoring it,” he said.
Though the Congress vice-president did not tweet further in response to Jha, party MLC Prem Chandra Mishra fired salvos, citing the flood in Gandak, which has affected a large population in East and West Champaran and Gopalganj. “Kamla, Kosi, Gandak and Bahmani rivers have touched the danger mark at several places, the breach in the Piprasi bundh is yet to be bridged,” he said.
JD-U spokesman Ajay Alok, however, said the government was prepared for the flood threat, but such a situation had not arisen so far, with rivers not even touching the danger mark. “Even if the rivers touch the danger mark, they don’t cause immediate flooding. Danger mark is to heighten alertness,” he said.
