Bhagalpur, Sept. 3: A prod from chief minister Nitish Kumar and media glare forced district magistrate (DM) Adesh Titarmare to open his office on Friday midnight and order payment of compensation of Rs 1 lakh in cash and Rs 3 lakh cheque each to Phoolan Devi and Pinki Devi, who lost their son and husband respectively to floods in Sabour block.

The Telegraph had first reported the misery of the two helpless women residents of Rajandipur village on August 29 and had also pointed out how they were prevented from meeting the chief minister during his visit to the government relief camp set up at Sabour High School on August 28.

Another report was published on Saturday, reporting how Phoolan and Pinki performed the last rites of their loved ones on boats in the water-locked hinterland after begging for money from mediapersons.

"The chief minister rang up the DM around 10pm last (Friday) night. After his instruction, we decided to hand over the compensation to the families of Suraj Kumar and Dilip Rajak, who drowned in the floods in the village earlier," said a senior district official, on condition of anonymity.

The DM assigned the circle officer to provide the cheques to each of the families immediately.

On Friday night, DM Titarmare said: "I came to know about the incident from the media this (Friday) evening and had already paid Rs 1 lakh in cash to each of the two families. But after direction from the state headquarters, the cheques were prepared for distribution."

He said he would conduct an inquiry about what led to the delay in providing compensation to the flood victims. A source in Patna on Saturday confirmed that Nitish Kumar had ordered the inquiry into the delay of payment of compensation. Both Phoolan and Pinki on Saturday appeared confident after receiving the compensation though the loss of lives could not be substantiated with money.

"You journalists have done a lot for us. Your efforts helped us get the amount," said Phoolan at the village on Saturday. Titarmare said the Sabour block officer was instructed to help the two women to open their bank accounts to help encash the cheques.

Chotu Rajak (11), who conducted the shradh (last rites) rituals for his brother Dilip Rajak, was detected with diarrhoea on Saturday. "We have been in this water-locked village for the past two days and the contaminated muddy water in our village is sufficient to spread the disease. Chotu may be a victim," said Pinki, sister-in-law of the boy.

The family members admitted Chotu to a private nursing home in Sabour on Saturday morning but on the intervention of mediapersons, Titarmare instructed the Bhagalpur civil surgeon to look into the matter and he was shifted to Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial College Hospital.