Chief minister Nitish Kumar, during a review meeting on fighting natural disasters, on Friday told officials to be prepared to deal with flood as well as drought.
Nitish conducted the meeting over video-conference with the district and divisional heads from Samvad hall in 1 Aney Marg. He asked the officials to organise orientation and training programmes for all boatmen and asked them to compile monsoon data for necessary action in case floods hit the state.
"Compile all the monsoon data from different agencies and come up with the final report, based on which necessary action would be taken," Nitish told the officials after information from weathermen that June rainfall in Bihar has been at its least in the past 30 years.
Nitish was accompanied by deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, heath minister Tej Pratap Yadav, disaster management minister Chandrashekhar and water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, better known as Lalan Singh.
The review meeting sought to assess preparations made by district administrations and the disaster management department to fight natural disasters.
Principal secretary, disaster management, Pratyaya Amrit gave a PowerPoint presentation on preparations made. He said pre-positioning of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) - deployment in certain locations from where teams can reach affected places in a short span of time - had been completed.
Status of tender for flood-related materials and bidding process were also discussed, apart from availability of medicine for human, cattle, and fodder and rehabilitation.
Unlike many other states, Bihar faces floods not only because of excessive rainfall in the country but also for Nepal rains. Around 73 per cent of the geographical area of north Bihar is considered flood-prone because of excessive rainfall in Nepal.
In the past decade, Bihar has experienced two disastrous floods - in 2007 over 20 districts, mostly in the north, were hit because of heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of almost all the major rivers in the state; and in 2008 an unprecedented flood due to a breach in the Kosi embankment near Kusaha village in Nepal. In 2016, too, Bihar was flooded in several places, affecting over a dozen districts forcing the government to undertake a massive relief operation.
Speaking on fighting a drought situation, Nitish said: "District officials must be ready to deal with floods or droughts. In the situation of a drought, subsidy on diesel must be provided without fail. All tubewells must function."
He directed the officials to keep an alternative crop plan ready in case of a drought.
The chief minister also asked his officials to conduct field visits in the districts they are in charge of to ensure timely preparation.
