Residents of Rajendra Nagar here staged a protest outside the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Sunday for failure to tackle flooding in the neighbourhood.
Mr. Modi, along with his family, had to be evacuated by the Patna District Magistrate from the first floor of his residence, which remains flooded for over a week now.
“Sushil Modi sharm karo…Sushil Modi hai hai (Sushil Modi you should be ashamed…Sushil Modi down down)”, shouted the protesters. outside gate of Mr Modi’s residence in Road No 8 of Rajendra Nagar.
The protesters raised slogans against the Deputy CM and the State government for not draining out the water.
“For 8 days we’re stuck in neck-deep water which has turned black and putrid…there is no water to drink, no electricity, no phone connection and no official to visit us for any help. Amid all these miseries, the Dy. CM who lives in our area, simply fled, along with his family, leaving us behind”, said protester Subodh Kumar.
His grouse was that Mr. Modi didn’t turn up after his evacuation to see how we were coping.
Earlier during the 1990s when the Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal was in power, as the senior State BJP leader, Mr. Modi had staged protests several times in Kankerbagh and Rajendra Nagar over waterlogging. “Now, what happens to him…he is in power for almost 15 years but the situation has gone from bad to worse…where is he now?”, the protesters asked.
A large number of policemen were deployed at Mr. Modi’s place to prevent any untoward incident. Though, water has been drained out from most parts of the area, there has been an outbreak of suspected dengue and acute gastroenteritis.
Over 1000 patients have been admitted in the government-run Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).
From September 28 to October 6 over 10,000 people were evacuated by NDRF personnel from Rajendra Nagar. Helicopters dropped relief packets for two days. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called a review meeting on Monday with officials to tackle waterlogging issues.
