CM Nitish hesitant to meet PM Modi on Bihar flood crisis: Tejashwi Yadav

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, on Wednesday, criticised both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over their handling of the ongoing flood crisis in North Bihar.

He said that CM Nitish Kumar is hesitant to meet PM Modi regarding the tragedy unfolding in Bihar.

In his statement on Wednesday, Tejashwi Yadav reminded Nitish Kumar of the 2008 Kusaha embankment breach tragedy, a major flood disaster that was handled urgently by the then government in the state, and questioned the present dispensation’s inaction in addressing the current crisis.

“Despite the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) having 30 MPs of Bihar in the Central government, including seven ministers, they appear powerless in tackling the crisis. Why is Nitish Kumar not applying pressure on the Prime Minister to declare the flood of Bihar, a national disaster, given the severe impact on millions of people,” Tejashwi Yadav asked.

LoP Tejashwi Yadav, in his critique of Bihar's current handling of the flood situation, contrasted the response of the previous UPA government during the 2008 Kosi flood disaster with that of the current NDA government.

“During the Kusaha embankment breach in 2008, the UPA government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, provided substantial support, including ₹1,000 crore in financial aid and an excess of food grains, to the flood-affected regions,” he said.

Tejashwi Yadav emphasised that Lalu Prasad Yadav, the then Union Railway Minister and a prominent RJD leader, played a pivotal role in securing this aid for the state as it was on his request that then PM Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi visited the flood-affected areas.

He also pointed out that Nitish Kumar's government had requested 1 lakh tonnes of food grains at the time, but the UPA government provided 1.25 lakh tonnes of surplus food grain.

He accused the current Bihar government of downplaying the severity of the floods, noting that the NDA seems content with offering meager amounts of aid while embankments and dams fail year after year without proper resolution.

Additionally, the LoP highlighted Lalu Prasad Yadav's efforts in providing direct relief to the flood victims in 2008, including the distribution of 1 lakh sari-dhoti sets, a donation of ₹1 crore which he had won in the game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, and one month’s salary.

Indian Railway and IRCTC employees also contributed their one-day salaries to the relief efforts.

Lalu Prasad Yadav further arranged 25 railway tankers each carrying 20,000 litres of drinking water and sent one lakh bottles of Rail Neer to address the drinking water shortage in the flood-affected areas.