Patna, April 25: Four children of a family were charred to death in their house at Pokhrama village under Suryagarha block of Lakhisarai district, around 136km southeast of Patna, on Monday. Sujeet (5), Prince (7), Saraswati (8) and Radha (5), were sleeping when fire broke out .
Alarmed over recent fires that have claimed many lives across the state, Lalu Prasad today called a meeting of RJD ministers and told them to tackle fires on priority.
The Nitish Kumar government has not yet held any such meeting, though fire victims get money from the state.
"Altogether 60 people have lost their lives in (recent) incidents of fire and most districts are affected," disaster management principal secretary Vyasji told The Telegraph. "Till now the government has given Rs 20 crore as ex-gratia to family members who have lost their near ones."
Lalu asked the state government to dig wells in all villages for water in case of fire.
"Lalu ji instructed us to be on alert in our respective Assembly constituencies," minority welfare minister Abdul Gafoor said after the two-and-half-hour meeting at 10 Circular Road. "Laluji said fires are being reported in large numbers and people are losing lives. He said everyone should come forward to extend their help during such disasters."
RJD sources said Lalu hinted he would speak to chief minister Nitish Kumar to include digging new wells and cleaning the old wells in the government's seven resolves.
"The seven resolves can be tweaked if needed," said health minister Tej Pratap.
Echoing his son, Lalu said: "I know piped drinking water is part of the seven resolves but we should also have wells, which are very effective (for fires). If a fire brigade does reach a village, how much water can it carry? Is that water enough to douse the fire? I don't think so."
Of the RJD's 12 ministers in the cabinet those present in the meeting included Ram Vihar Rai (agriculture) Alok Mehta (cooperative) and Shiv Chandra Ram (art, culture and youth affairs). Deputy chief minister Tejaswi was busy attending the division-wise review meeting with chief minister Nitish Kumar at Samvad. Some ministers were in their constituencies and disaster management minister Chandrashekhar was in Darbghanga where two people have died in a fire.
Asked about steps taken to curb fires, Vyasji said: "It is the people who have to take the precautionary measures. We are issuing order in the rural areas that cooking of daytime food must finish before 9am. We have also asked people not to do any havan (ritual fires). People burn husk of wheat, which is very dangerous. People must also not throw bidi and cigarette butts."
