[An edited, shorter version of this report by me appeared this morning in Sakaal Times.]

Supaul (Bihar) / Sunsari (Nepal): Even as Bihar has ordered a judicial probe into all embankment breaches in the Kosi river since the embankment was built in 1953, water resources minister Vijendra Yadav has blamed Nepal for the August 18 incident.

Yadav has said that the Bihar government was aware of the impending crisis but could not do anything because of lack of cooperation from the Nepalese side. He said that the water resources ministry’s secretary had written a letter to the Indian embassy officials in Nepal, a copy of which had been marked to the irrigation department at the center. He said that on August 14, CM Nitish Kumar had approached external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to intervene.

“I did not want to reveal all this earlier because external affairs are under the centre’s jurisdiction but I have been forced to do so because I am being painted as the villain who caused the flood,” he told Sakaal Times.

He listed four reasons to explain how the Nepalese side was responsible. Firstly, embankment repair and flood-fighting work was halted because of a strike by labourers. He said that the strike was instigated by local political elements. At the breach point in Kusaha, however, there were conflicting versions from people about why the strike took place. Some said they were demanding higher wages, some said one group was demanding that no other group be allowed to work, and some said they were striking because they hadn’t been paid wages for five days. One contractor, Babloo Kumar of Surya, who has been hired now to help the public sector company HSCL with the repair work, said that the Bihar government often delayed payments to contractors and water resources department officials used discretionary powers to give contracts to small upstart companies.

Everyone, including local Nepalis, were in agreement with minister Yadav’s contention that flood-fighting was badly hit because Indian officials couldn’t cut trees and work in the night as the area had been decalred a reserved forest. The work was often delayed because officials wouldn’t be given passes to go into the reserved forest, which came up along the embankment India built as per an agreement with Nepal in 1953. “Even the previous water resources minister was once not given permission and had to return,” said Virendra Prasad, the official manning the Kosi barrage at the Indo-Nepal border. Locals there also confirmed that Bihar government officials were often afraid to visit the site for inspection because of the bad law and order situation in Nepal, which has improved drastically.

Prasad also confirmed the allegations that the two engineers had been attacked and firs thus filed. Upstream in Barakshetra, which is the catchment area of the Kosi river, the gauge tower that measures the water discharge, had been brought down by Maoists in May.

“Sharad Yadav, who was invited to Prime Minister Prachanda’s swearing-in on 18 August, had taken up the matter with him, but it was too late,” minister Yadav told Sakaal Times, “The new government in Nepal, however, is giving us all co-operation now.”

When asked about Nepal’s role in the breach, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told this reporter, “Some questions are answered by time.”

Yadav’s clarifications come in the wake of sever criticism against him from the opposition and local media which blame him for negligence. Union minister of state for water resources, Jai Prakash Narain Yadav, who is from the RJD, has already said that the state government is blaming Nepal to hide its own negligent role, and that it should not have claimed in its daily embankment bulletins that all embankments are safe if they were in the know.

The opposition RJD has also called the judicial probe an eyewash as it does not seek to probe the state’s role in the August 18 floods and divert the attention to all embankment breaches since 1953.

Many flood victims are suffering from diseases

Nearly 30,000 people are reported to have fled their homes after a dam collapsed in south-eastern Nepal leading to flooding in the area.

The police say they are trying to rescue the stranded people, but the high water levels are making airlifting them difficult.

The Koshi dam on the Saptakoshi river in Sunsari district collapsed on Monday afternoon after breaching embankments.

Many flood victims have taken shelter in school and college buildings.

The police say at least three people have drowned in the floods.

A number of villages have been inundated, a police officer said. “People stranded on the roofs of their houses are being rescued by boat rescue teams,” he added.

Traffic on a highway linking eastern Nepal with its western part has been affected after flood waters damaged a section of the road.

Many of the flood victims who are suffering from diarrhoea and fever have been taken to the district hospital, a police official said.

About 28 million people were affected by the floods in India, Bangladesh and Nepal last year, in which more than 400 people died.

(Photo converted to BW using photoshop)
Portrait of an Muslim old man at chandbela vdc, sunsari, Nepal

Kids watching street drama at chandbela vdc, sunsari on Thursday June 12,2008. The drama was performed by Ramgunj youth club itahari and was to aware the people of villages about HIV aids and awareness against the unsafe sex.

Recently I went to some villages in the sunsari district. Although i spent one day there, the lifestyle and the poor life they are living really made me think twice. i’ll be updating some series of such pictures in future.the houses, the clothes they wear, after seeing all these, it really made me think, “is life really beautiful?”

संविधानसभाको निर्वाचनमा तेस्रो लिङ्गी १२ जनाले उमेदवारी दिएका छन् । 

 यसरी नेपालमा पहिलो पटक उनीहरुले उमेरदवारी दिएका हुन ।

प्रत्यक्षमा

१ सुनसरी क्षेत्र नं १ बाट दिपक र्राई    - नेकपा संयुत्त

२ सुनसरी क्षेत्र नं २ बाट सुधनलाल चौधरी – स्वतनत्र     

३. सुनसरी क्षेत्र नं ६ बाट श्रवण चौधरी – नेकपा संयुत्त

४ कास्की क्षेत्र नं ४ बाट मिन वहादुर गुरुङ- नेकपा संयुत्त

५  नेपालगन्ज क्षेत्र नं ३ बाट.रजत अलि  - स्वतन्त्र

६ स्याङ्ज क्षेत्र नं २ बाट रुद्र बहादुर थापा  नेकपा संयुत्त

७.  विरगन्ज क्षेत्र नं १ बाट विजय महतो काईरी नेकपा संयुत्त

८. बुटवल क्षेत्र नं ४ बाट सन्त बहादुर पुन स्वतन्त्र

९.भैरवा क्षेत्र नं २ बाट रामकृष्ण गुरुङ   स्वतन्त्र

१०. सप्तरी क्षेत्र नं १बार्टर् इन्द्र नारायण चौधरी नेकपा संयुत्त 

समानुपातिकमा  

१ नेपाल बिकास पर्टि म्याग्दीबाट एक महिला तेस्रो लिङ्गी

२ गोरख क्षेत्र नं 2 बाट नेकपा संयुत्तबाट सुनील वावु पन्त