By Mohammed Akram for TwoCircles.net
To,
Shri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, Government of Bihar
Subject: Plight of flood affected people and need of food and medicines
Sir,
With due respect, I want to draw your attention towards the plight of the flood-affected people of Bihar in general and of Seemanchal region in particular. The region, you know very well, has poor infrastructure facilities and lives of people are completely devastated in the aftermath of current unprecedented floods. Hundreds of people died and hundreds are missing. I come from this region and know very well how marginalised and vulnerable people belonging to this region are. The worst victims of this flood and its aftermath are children, women and aged people, the most vulnerable sections of any population.
Sir, I want to communicate to you that I have started an online petition addressed to you at Change.org and this petition requests you to send enough food, drinking water and medicines for the flood affected people of Seemanchal region.
Sir, more than 125 people, largely university and college teachers and students, coming from different parts of the country including Bihar, have supported this petition in less than 36 hours of its origin. This reflects the seriousness of the issue we are talking about.
The content of this petition is self-evident, and we are sure, you will also agree with it. You are certainly feeling much concerned about the plight of the people affected by the flood. However, our humble concern is to ensure that no further death could occur due to lack of food or medicines in the region.
Dear sir, please send enough food items and medicines so that these could reach to the remotest villages. Please deploy additional medical teams in the region. You have already appointed special officers for implementing the rescue operations and this is a very sincere effort. Please visit the affected areas a few times more to ensure that the officials could make a little extra effort at this time of need.
The author is Professor in Department of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (India). He has authored/ edited six books and published many papers on issues related to health and marginalisation.