By NNN-PTI
Patna : The flood situation in Bihar Monday showed signs of improvement with major rivers receding all along their course.
Relief and rescue operations were further intensified with the help of motorised boats from the Army and the Indian Air Force helicopters in the worst-hit districts.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told reporters at Madhubani that motor boats from the Army were pressed into service while four IAF helicopters continued airdropping of relief materials in the flood-affected areas.
Expressing satisfaction at the operations being carried out by the Army, IAF and state personnel, Kumar said that the state government would submit a detailed memorandum to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil seeking Central assistance for the damages caused to standing crops, public and private property and infrastructure during their visit to Bihar Tuesday.
Kumar said over 100 Army personnel were engaged in Begusarai district to carry out the relief and rescue work with the help of motorised boats.
Around 90 people have so far lost their lives in the flood-ravaged 18 districts in Bihar where over 10 million people continue to reel under the impact of floods, state disaster management secretary Manoj Kumar Srivastava said.
He said polythene sheets, foodgrains, prepared food packets, besides match boxes were being supplied to the flood-hit victims in the state.
“We have taken up relief measures on a war-footing,” he said.
Meanwhile, expressing displeasure over alleged inadequate relief efforts by the Bihar government for the flood victims, the Patna High Court Monday directed it to involve non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in its relief work.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Narayan Roy and K K Mandal, which had converted media reports on inadequate relief into a PIL, said citing a TV channel report that NGOs willing to contribute to relief effort were not being involved.
Stating that even the international bodies like the UNICEF had pitched in to mitigate the suffering of the flood-hit, the bench observed there was a pressing need to take the services of the local NGOs in tackling the problem of insufficient relief.
The bench directed the government to ensure effective utilisation of panchayat level officials in reaching relief in each affected village and proper monitoring of the relief operations.
It asked the disaster management secretary Manoj Srivastav to present to the court another action taken report on relief on August nine when it would resume hearing on the PIL.
Amicus curiae in the case Ganesh Prasad Singh alleged that a large number of people in remote areas were on the verge of starvation as relief was not reaching them.