Chura (beaten rice) and jaggery for breakfast, and watery dal and vegetable curry for lunch and dinner - that's what the more than 600 people living in the flood relief camp set up at BN Collegiate School are surviving on.

The food here is perhaps the worst among the 35 relief camps in Patna district that flood affected people across the state have thronged to.

"Why can't they serve us proper meals? We are not demanding chicken or mutton - just proper dal, rice and vegetables," said Ramji Rai, one of the people at the camp.

Valmiki Rai (55), a resident of Sabbalpur diara now living at the camp, said: "We are neither expecting nor demanding a rich meal but they should at least not serve us poor quality dal and vegetables. If we complain to the cooking in-charge, he might abuse us. So we stay silent."

Another camp inmate, Lalita Devi who was with her two children, said: "We cannot raise our voice as they may stop feeding us and our children. So, it is better to be quiet and eat whatever they are serving us."

At the Bihar Vidyapeeth relief camp, where Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal ate lunch on Wednesday, the story was different. Even disaster management minister Chandrashekhar had meals at the relief camp in Sonepur on Tuesday.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday visited several relief camps and inspected the services there.

But no dignitary has bothered to visit the BN Collegiate School camp.

When The Telegraph visited the relief camp on Thursday, lunch had just begun. The dal being served resembled one only in colour; the curry was equally watery.

Asked about it, Shakeel Ahmad, Patna Sadar block agriculture officer who is in-charge of food at the camp, declared: "The dal is accumulated at the bottom of the pot. Those serving the meal have not mixed it properly."

Rakesh Kumar, a clerk at Patna Sadar, interjected: "No sir, we are serving very good food."