A critically ill patient of Magadh Hospital in Patna being shifted. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 17: Rajendra Nagar, the neighbourhood of Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, is presently flooded and stinking.

Incidentally, organising dharnas against waterlogging was Modi’s pastime for 15 years when he represented the constituency as an Opposition leader. His mobilisation against flooding in the locality that falls under Patna central constituency earned him enough brownie points from the vote bank.

While Modi is now in the drier state of Gujarat, his people are living in a flooded city and probably for the first time since it came to power, the Nitish-led government is the facing the ire of residents — who have been under house arrest, unable to go to schools, offices or shops because of the stagnant water and the stink.

Last year, the government handed over the work of building roads and drains to Calcutta-based Tantiya Construction. While the company landed with its equipment and manpower, the government withdrew the contract in May this year on the advice of principal secretary of road construction department R.K. Singh.

Singh alleged: “Tantiya was unduly delaying work and indulging in irregularities.”

The construction company officials made a counter allegation stating that Singh did not “heed” to the company’s legitimate demand to remove encroachment from areas where drains and roads were to be built.

Residents stress that when the government withdrew the contract, the company left Patna with half-dug drains and roads still under construction.

The situation worsened so much in the past four days that NGOs and the government were forced to press boats into service to ferry people across the capital city. The municipal corporation was deployed pumps to drain the water out from Rajendra Nagar, Kankarbagh and Chitragupta Nagar.

Patients are experiencing the most harrowing time. The Nalanda Medical College and Hospital is surrounded by water from all sides. City schools have been closed for the past three days.

“We have been distributing food packets in slums. Efforts are on to drain out the water,” said Mihir Kumar Singh, the commissioner of Patna Municipal Corporation. The capital experienced 200mm of rain in the past four days.