By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi,
The floods have been rampaging since eons for the people of Assam, Bihar, Bengal and some parts of Uttar Pradesh. The point is that north Bihar is visited by floods every year and routinely devastated by its river systems, led by the Kosi, which originate in Nepal and eventually flow into the Gangetic plains.
Terming the floods in Bihar this year as ”a national calamity”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced an immediate release of Rs 1,000 crore and 1.25 lakh metric tonne of food grains to the state reeling under an unprecedented deluge caused by river Kosi.
Political leaders were quick to take advantage of the calamity for gathering public support. Even the PM’s announcement of a relief package for Bihar and Lalu Yadav’s urgent requests for relief and contribution from the railway workers can be seen in this context.
Stating that the package was in conformity with the demands he had placed before the prime minister during his visit to New Delhi, Nitish Kumar put an additional requirement of around Rs 950 crore before the PM for reconstruction of the embankments breached by rivers in Bihar.
Reportedly around 150 people have lost their lives while over 40 lakh people in 15 districts of Bihar have been hit by the impact of the floods with the worst hit being Araria, Supaul, Madhepura and Saharsa. The authorities say more than 2,000 villages need assistance, although their efforts could not reach a large section of the people marooned in flooded areas.
In the darkness of corruption, NGO’s are the rays of hope for the people displaced by floods in Bihar for relief and rehabilitation. The state government is the responsible for inadequate relief. Shelters run by it were ill equipped and disorderly and even relief material made available by NGOs and industrial houses were not being properly distributed.
With the engineers and ministers in the state government claiming innocence, we demand a high-level probe to ascertain who is responsible for the tragedy that has struck over 40 lakh people in the northeastern districts of Bihar.
It is really very unfortunate that Bihar has to face nature’s fury in such a devastating manner and we all are sympathizers with the victims. Let’s go beyond Bihar for a while.
I wrote an article in October 2007 entitled “Flood in Assam: Isn’t it a National Disaster?” which was carried by some newspapers and magazine in their successive publications. The article detailed the destruction of flood in Assam and argued ‘Every year the floods leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields, drowning livestock, besides causing loss of human life and property cost in several billions.”
According to the National Flood Commission (NFC), the area liable to floods in Assam stands at 31.60 lakh hectares. Assam thus accounts for as much as 9.4 per cent of the total flood-prone area in the whole of our country. An Assam government statement said ‘a total land area of two million hectares was affected, besides nearly 4.8 million hectares of cropland in July 2007 flood’. The floods hit more than 10 million people covering about 9,000 villages – the worst hit districts were Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Dhubri, Morigaon, Barpeta, Goalpara, Nalbar and Dhemaji in 2007 alone.
The national media covers the news only when floods submerge the State – and that too a mention here and a mention there. But they have never covered the misery that the people go through, year after year. Floods have pushed thousands of people to an uncertain future; they have shattered Assam’s fragile economy as a whole. For a state with 2.66 crore people, it is a major problem: more serious than insurgency.
The big question which we asked last year remains the same till date that Assam has always faced the mighty challenge of flood year after year, thousands of people lost their lives and millions are rendered homeless every year, even the flood this year – (August – September) by all accounts was ‘very’ devastating. But still it fails to draw the attention of the nation towards this disaster as if flood in Assam is some common yearly ‘festival’. For last several years the Assam government, opposition parties and all non governmental organizations (NGOs) of the state have been continuously asking the Central government to declare the floods in Assam a ‘national disaster’. But all pleas have fallen on deaf ears. May we repeat our question plainly– why the flood in Assam is not declared a national disaster?
In early August when the prime minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh, toured Assam, he pulled out from visiting Nagaon and Kokrajhar districts of the state owing to foul weather, but only a few days later it appeared our honourable PM is so sorry for the flood victims of Bihar, that he rushed to the state irrespective of the foul weather and surprisingly without even a formal request from the state government he volunteered to declare Bihar flood ‘a national disaster’!
For the last 62 years since independence Assam has always borne the brunt of floods but it has never been treated as a national disaster. Why Assam should feel the burnt of flood and suffering alone? Isn’t Assam an integral part of India that all Indian should feel with Assamese– their pain and agony?
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M. Burhanuddin Qasmi is editor of Eastern Crescent and director of Mumbai based Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre. He can be contacted at [email protected])