Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday made an aerial survey of the flood situation in Bihar arising out of release of over five lakh cusecs of water from Bansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh, while an alert was sounded in nine districts.
Mr. Kumar, accompanied by senior officials of the Water Resources Department(WRD) and Disaster Management Department (DMD), surveyed areas surrounding Sone and Ganga rivers where the discharged waters had surged into, official sources said.
After the survey, Mr. Kumar said though the flood situation was not ‘very alarming,’ measures have been put into place to tackle any situation arising out of an overflow from Indrapuri barrage in Bihar, where water has reached from MP.
Earlier in the day, he held a high-level review meeting with WRD and DMD officials and engineers and assessed the impact of the released water surging into Sone and Ganga rivers that was likely to submerge nine districts in central and north Bihar, the sources said.
WRD Principal Secretary Afzal Amanullah informed Kumar that the release of 5.29 lakh cusecs of water from Bansagar dam which swelled Sone river was the highest discharge since 1975.
Though the water level in the river had abated, the flood situation in nine districts adjoining Sone and Ganga rivers had aggravated, he said.
There was sudden massive release of water from Bansagar dam in Sone river in MP for 12 hours till last evening triggering off flood fears, official sources said.
Official sources said heavy rains in the catchment areas of major rivers flowing through the State has worsened the fear of flood in the nine districts.
Following instructions of WRD Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who is in Delhi in connection with the National Integration Council meeting, Mr. Amanullah has alerted the district magistrates and engineers concerned.
A report from said flood waters have entered several villages in Rohtas, Nauhatta, Tilithu, Dehri and Akodhigola blocks located near Sone river.
Over 300 people have been moved to safer places, district magistrate Anupam Kumar said adding that National Disaster Response Force team has been deployed for rescue and relief operations.
The flood situation was being constantly monitored and the water level in Sone had receded marginally, he said.
