MILIND
This report is prepared on the basis of inputs (written and verbal) submitted by experts in a meeting held at PUCL office in Patna on 27th August, 2007.
There is a proverb in English: he gives twice who gives promptly.
Implication of this proverb is: - when you ask for help from somebody, whom you think is a nobleman and he helps you just as promptly as you wanted, then he is giving the double of the help you wanted.
Vice versa; if you are in trouble and asked for a help from somebody and he just slept in sweet dreams, for he was tired of seeing you, then he is doubling and trebling your troubles. This is what happened in Bihar when a trouble (read flood) came and people asked for help from somebody (read government) and just then she went to have nap in the lap of luxuries
This report is prepared on the basis of inputs (written and verbal) submitted by experts in a meeting held at PUCL office in Patna on 27th August, 2007.
There is a proverb in English: he gives twice who gives promptly.
Implication of this proverb is: - when you ask for help from somebody, whom you think is a nobleman and he helps you just as promptly as you wanted, then he is giving the double of the help you wanted.
Vice versa; if you are in trouble and asked for a help from somebody and he just slept in sweet dreams, for he was tired of seeing you, then he is doubling and trebling your troubles. This is what happened in Bihar when a trouble (read flood) came and people asked for help from somebody (read government) and just then she went to have nap in the lap of luxuries
.
We heard a lot about Disaster Management for twelve or thirteen months. This word created a romance among youths, and sense of hope among common people who were sure to face the music when flood comes... And created a heap of lust and greed among all those who were least selected to the disaster.
What happened to this cute terminology? When disaster came, where was the management? We, being responsible Citizens of India may know the correct story line (however it is too tattered to stitch) but for that we have to toil hard and sweat profusely.
Scene 1:- There is newly built wing of government called centre for Disaster Management. Experts have opinions about this centre that it is more beautiful, more luxurious and more well-equipped than office of the Chief Minister of Bihar. Perhaps! This wing of the government is richer than cumulative riches of the richest department of the Bihar government. Mr. Vijay Kumar is a social activist working on grave issues of shortage of water and flood in Bihar. He says, “Centre for Disaster Management may be asked through the help of RTI how they manage such a large amount of money.”
He further adds that, “Government has separately made a Disaster Management Act to save us from all kinds of disaster like flood, earthquake, fire, famine etc. A separate council has been made. Not even that, but government has a separate Secretary level officer for management of disaster management.”
Then…! Then…what? It happened like that. All these gentlemen of Centre for Disaster Management (from now on CDM) sat to prepare themselves for the disaster (about which they were sure had to come). They didn’t sit only once. They held their sittings for several times and not only that well before the disaster (in the month of April – May). They created a lot of hue and cry – We are prepared! We are prepared for any kind of disaster to come, as makers of the invincible ship (The Titanic) – had done long before. History knows what end these tall claims meet.
Anyhow these bright gentlemen knew almost everything. They knew that the state of Bihar can be divided in two parts due to the clear demarcation made by the Sacred River of Ganges. North Bihar is in the north of Ganges and South Bihar is in the south of Ganges. North Bihar has several rivers – all of them are tributaries to Ganges – like Gandak, Kamla, Balan, Kosi, Baghmati, Ghughri and Mahananda. All these rivers are deadly dangerous. The crew of the CDM knew about the danger marks for each of these rivers, i.e. when and how do the rivers start flowing above the mark of danger.
These gentlemen even knew about the duration of monsoon in Bihar and the rates of average rainfall in various parts of Bihar. They have got several research papers on flood, they have all the books, information, documents and accessibility and acquaintance to all the physical and invisible requirements needed to control flood. They knew what happened in previous floods in 2004, in 2002 and in 1987.
Scene 2:- On August 2007 flood arrived as an avalanche arrives giving no time for even a scrimpy piece of shelter to rest. What we could do is only to read newspapers finding the devastating news of deaths and destructions all across the northern Bihar. So finally we have found what those gentlemen came out with on whom we relied the most, from whom we asked for help in bad times, (No question of giving help promptly) they ever refused to give an iota.
We the responsible but helpless citizens had nothing in hand only news…news and stories… stories…to listen.
The Titanic (read as CDM) was ripped off. Eleven districts of north Bihar were completely engulfed by the flood. Two crores and three lakhs of people were affected. (The government released this data on 25th August 2007). Which means 25% of the total population of Bihar is affected by flood.
Standing crops and properties of billions of rupees were destroyed (as estimated); approximately 654 people were reported to be dead (from the data issued by the government on 7th September)
When the king’s men (the bureaucrats) arose from their sleeps they found situations slipping out of their hands so they tried to cover their mistakes and shortcomings, keeping the knowledge of the intensity of water currents of the deadly rivers. They used 777 boats (governments’ data of 25th August) to save the people who were in the midst of the flood. They kicked off their choppers to drop food packets to those huddled and hungry masses. And suddenly sky was full of buzzing and rattling noises of those flying machines. It seemed exciting and fascinating, didn’t it?
They said they have provided food packets and relief materials to 50,000 families, Rs. 4000/hectare to those families whose cultivable land and standing crop had submerged in water. Rs. 10,000 per house to those whose house had been destroyed.
Scene 3 – Ramashray Prasad Singh, a Human Right Activist says that there is a wide gap between what is claimed on paper and what is done on earth. What happened in Begusarai and Khagaria was a nightmarish experience for the people.
In Khagaria where Burhi Gandak and Kamla have swept thousand of hectares of land, people were forced to live on the edge. Makeshift settlements have been built automatically on the wrecked embankments. People are still in hope that somebody would come and drag them out of this catastrophe. It was reported that in some places like Alauli, Bachhauta, Chautham ( all in Khagaria) government relief materials have been provided but they are not only inadequate but they reached very late as well. The time when these materials reached many of men & women succumbed to the devastating conditions of flood. A social activist, Mr. Vijay Vatsayan visited a place called Malkauli in Samastipur where he found that people were living on the dam for 23 days. The water of Gandak entered in village on 1st of August and the first official man went to see them on 23rd of August. He was not sure that dam would be a safe place for them for one more week.
Even a bizarre incident occurred in a place where government was trying to provide food packets by air dropping method a certain food packet fell upon and he died on the spot. Lo! What a satirical situation is this – on one hand we romantically narrate the story of helicopters, choppers and food packets, on the other we have to face the silent face of a man who becomes a victim of weight of his own food.
One satisfying thing was that the government had provided food grains without having discrimination between BPL & APL people. Although government had did so earlier and it became a very tough job for the poor masses to prove them that they were very poor. When flood had swept one’s house, clothes, belongings even kins, how difficult it would be for him to show where his BPL card was. Thanks to government that it didn’t happen.
It was reported that government succeeded in providing wheat to 60 % of people in some districts like Sitamarhi (thanks to Special Flood DM, Mr. K. K. Pathak in Sitamarhi; not all the districts were so lucky). Another fulcrum where government put loads of her claims was provision of Rs. 200 and 25 kgs of grains to each family. Hold it on and think for a while – hundred of people are living on the embankments, or on the edge of a national highway and there is no mode of communication available and you give them raw food grains – how would they eat it? Nobody can eat raw cereals. They could neither cook it (no chulha is available) nor they could grind it (all mills are submerged in water). But they have kept it with themselves so that one day they could eat it. Solution to this problem – Mr. Vatsayan says in Madhupur Panchayat of Kalyanpur (dist. Samastipur) some local leaders provided flat rice (chuda) and jaggery (gud) which was not only easily edible but easily digestible too. But this solution was exercised only once or twice in Samastipur. Rest of the time they got wheat and Rs. 200.
Scene 4 –Camps – Experts Say that relief camps were a rare sight in flooded areas. Again it was tool late to supply plastics and other materials to build camps. It was found that many of the camps were built by local helping hands or built on its own. These camps were nodal points to deliver relief materials, compensational grants and medical help but instead of that they gave vent to the people having vested interest in these camps. In Noakothi (Begusarai), Mukhiya was not giving the stipulated sum of money government had allotted to distribute among flood victims. And this was district where several people died due to snakebite although they were living in the relief camps.
Another example – Bangla village in Kalyanpur (Samastipur) had a medical camp under a tree and the tree was near an embankment. The tree had a paper notice tucked on its branch claiming that it was a medical camp. It was reported from Muzaffarpur that BDOs and Mukhiyas had several cartons of medicines abandoned in their offices. Nobody is there to distribute it and nobody is there to receive it.
Scene 5 - Boats - Bagmati broke the Pakar Ghat in Khagaria and emergent need of life saving boats arose but Mr. Singh said that although government claimed that 777 motorized boats had been provided, but only a dozen (or even less than that) were plying on the overflown waters. They wee simply miserable because they could carry either individuals or their belongings only. They could not carry both at the same time. It takes a lot of courage inside a man to give himself in the protection of such boats. Story doesn’t end here. Experts told that boats provide by government were in command of local goons who were charging lot of bucksto carry people from one bank to another. Mr. Vijay Kumar said that these goons & Mallahs had very bad experience with government. Last time (2004) government promised them to provide remuneration on each boat used as a rescue instrument but government failed to keep her promises. (Alas!) Consequently they are not ready to cooperate with anybody.
See how each piece of this story reveals a series of truths behind every hyped untruth. We belong to a country about whom A.L Basham had written – A wonder that was India. We love to narrate stories. No matter where it comes from. Instead of believing natural logic of cause and effect, we believe in wonders, miracles, invisible hands, divine powers. But floods are earthly and natural phenomenon – We have to believe it. It is a disaster that can be managed with men with visible hands (let divine powers have holidays). Let us hope – after all there is no place for despair.
Acknowledment to Mr. Ramashray Prasad Singh from Begusarai, Prakash Louise from Bihar Social Institute Patna, Vijay Vatsayan from Samastipur and Vijay Kumar from Patna.
We heard a lot about Disaster Management for twelve or thirteen months. This word created a romance among youths, and sense of hope among common people who were sure to face the music when flood comes... And created a heap of lust and greed among all those who were least selected to the disaster.
What happened to this cute terminology? When disaster came, where was the management? We, being responsible Citizens of India may know the correct story line (however it is too tattered to stitch) but for that we have to toil hard and sweat profusely.
Scene 1:- There is newly built wing of government called centre for Disaster Management. Experts have opinions about this centre that it is more beautiful, more luxurious and more well-equipped than office of the Chief Minister of Bihar. Perhaps! This wing of the government is richer than cumulative riches of the richest department of the Bihar government. Mr. Vijay Kumar is a social activist working on grave issues of shortage of water and flood in Bihar. He says, “Centre for Disaster Management may be asked through the help of RTI how they manage such a large amount of money.”
He further adds that, “Government has separately made a Disaster Management Act to save us from all kinds of disaster like flood, earthquake, fire, famine etc. A separate council has been made. Not even that, but government has a separate Secretary level officer for management of disaster management.”
Then…! Then…what? It happened like that. All these gentlemen of Centre for Disaster Management (from now on CDM) sat to prepare themselves for the disaster (about which they were sure had to come). They didn’t sit only once. They held their sittings for several times and not only that well before the disaster (in the month of April – May). They created a lot of hue and cry – We are prepared! We are prepared for any kind of disaster to come, as makers of the invincible ship (The Titanic) – had done long before. History knows what end these tall claims meet.
Anyhow these bright gentlemen knew almost everything. They knew that the state of Bihar can be divided in two parts due to the clear demarcation made by the Sacred River of Ganges. North Bihar is in the north of Ganges and South Bihar is in the south of Ganges. North Bihar has several rivers – all of them are tributaries to Ganges – like Gandak, Kamla, Balan, Kosi, Baghmati, Ghughri and Mahananda. All these rivers are deadly dangerous. The crew of the CDM knew about the danger marks for each of these rivers, i.e. when and how do the rivers start flowing above the mark of danger.
These gentlemen even knew about the duration of monsoon in Bihar and the rates of average rainfall in various parts of Bihar. They have got several research papers on flood, they have all the books, information, documents and accessibility and acquaintance to all the physical and invisible requirements needed to control flood. They knew what happened in previous floods in 2004, in 2002 and in 1987.
Scene 2:- On August 2007 flood arrived as an avalanche arrives giving no time for even a scrimpy piece of shelter to rest. What we could do is only to read newspapers finding the devastating news of deaths and destructions all across the northern Bihar. So finally we have found what those gentlemen came out with on whom we relied the most, from whom we asked for help in bad times, (No question of giving help promptly) they ever refused to give an iota.
We the responsible but helpless citizens had nothing in hand only news…news and stories… stories…to listen.
The Titanic (read as CDM) was ripped off. Eleven districts of north Bihar were completely engulfed by the flood. Two crores and three lakhs of people were affected. (The government released this data on 25th August 2007). Which means 25% of the total population of Bihar is affected by flood.
Standing crops and properties of billions of rupees were destroyed (as estimated); approximately 654 people were reported to be dead (from the data issued by the government on 7th September)
When the king’s men (the bureaucrats) arose from their sleeps they found situations slipping out of their hands so they tried to cover their mistakes and shortcomings, keeping the knowledge of the intensity of water currents of the deadly rivers. They used 777 boats (governments’ data of 25th August) to save the people who were in the midst of the flood. They kicked off their choppers to drop food packets to those huddled and hungry masses. And suddenly sky was full of buzzing and rattling noises of those flying machines. It seemed exciting and fascinating, didn’t it?
They said they have provided food packets and relief materials to 50,000 families, Rs. 4000/hectare to those families whose cultivable land and standing crop had submerged in water. Rs. 10,000 per house to those whose house had been destroyed.
Scene 3 – Ramashray Prasad Singh, a Human Right Activist says that there is a wide gap between what is claimed on paper and what is done on earth. What happened in Begusarai and Khagaria was a nightmarish experience for the people.
In Khagaria where Burhi Gandak and Kamla have swept thousand of hectares of land, people were forced to live on the edge. Makeshift settlements have been built automatically on the wrecked embankments. People are still in hope that somebody would come and drag them out of this catastrophe. It was reported that in some places like Alauli, Bachhauta, Chautham ( all in Khagaria) government relief materials have been provided but they are not only inadequate but they reached very late as well. The time when these materials reached many of men & women succumbed to the devastating conditions of flood. A social activist, Mr. Vijay Vatsayan visited a place called Malkauli in Samastipur where he found that people were living on the dam for 23 days. The water of Gandak entered in village on 1st of August and the first official man went to see them on 23rd of August. He was not sure that dam would be a safe place for them for one more week.
Even a bizarre incident occurred in a place where government was trying to provide food packets by air dropping method a certain food packet fell upon and he died on the spot. Lo! What a satirical situation is this – on one hand we romantically narrate the story of helicopters, choppers and food packets, on the other we have to face the silent face of a man who becomes a victim of weight of his own food.
One satisfying thing was that the government had provided food grains without having discrimination between BPL & APL people. Although government had did so earlier and it became a very tough job for the poor masses to prove them that they were very poor. When flood had swept one’s house, clothes, belongings even kins, how difficult it would be for him to show where his BPL card was. Thanks to government that it didn’t happen.
It was reported that government succeeded in providing wheat to 60 % of people in some districts like Sitamarhi (thanks to Special Flood DM, Mr. K. K. Pathak in Sitamarhi; not all the districts were so lucky). Another fulcrum where government put loads of her claims was provision of Rs. 200 and 25 kgs of grains to each family. Hold it on and think for a while – hundred of people are living on the embankments, or on the edge of a national highway and there is no mode of communication available and you give them raw food grains – how would they eat it? Nobody can eat raw cereals. They could neither cook it (no chulha is available) nor they could grind it (all mills are submerged in water). But they have kept it with themselves so that one day they could eat it. Solution to this problem – Mr. Vatsayan says in Madhupur Panchayat of Kalyanpur (dist. Samastipur) some local leaders provided flat rice (chuda) and jaggery (gud) which was not only easily edible but easily digestible too. But this solution was exercised only once or twice in Samastipur. Rest of the time they got wheat and Rs. 200.
Scene 4 –Camps – Experts Say that relief camps were a rare sight in flooded areas. Again it was tool late to supply plastics and other materials to build camps. It was found that many of the camps were built by local helping hands or built on its own. These camps were nodal points to deliver relief materials, compensational grants and medical help but instead of that they gave vent to the people having vested interest in these camps. In Noakothi (Begusarai), Mukhiya was not giving the stipulated sum of money government had allotted to distribute among flood victims. And this was district where several people died due to snakebite although they were living in the relief camps.
Another example – Bangla village in Kalyanpur (Samastipur) had a medical camp under a tree and the tree was near an embankment. The tree had a paper notice tucked on its branch claiming that it was a medical camp. It was reported from Muzaffarpur that BDOs and Mukhiyas had several cartons of medicines abandoned in their offices. Nobody is there to distribute it and nobody is there to receive it.
Scene 5 - Boats - Bagmati broke the Pakar Ghat in Khagaria and emergent need of life saving boats arose but Mr. Singh said that although government claimed that 777 motorized boats had been provided, but only a dozen (or even less than that) were plying on the overflown waters. They wee simply miserable because they could carry either individuals or their belongings only. They could not carry both at the same time. It takes a lot of courage inside a man to give himself in the protection of such boats. Story doesn’t end here. Experts told that boats provide by government were in command of local goons who were charging lot of bucksto carry people from one bank to another. Mr. Vijay Kumar said that these goons & Mallahs had very bad experience with government. Last time (2004) government promised them to provide remuneration on each boat used as a rescue instrument but government failed to keep her promises. (Alas!) Consequently they are not ready to cooperate with anybody.
See how each piece of this story reveals a series of truths behind every hyped untruth. We belong to a country about whom A.L Basham had written – A wonder that was India. We love to narrate stories. No matter where it comes from. Instead of believing natural logic of cause and effect, we believe in wonders, miracles, invisible hands, divine powers. But floods are earthly and natural phenomenon – We have to believe it. It is a disaster that can be managed with men with visible hands (let divine powers have holidays). Let us hope – after all there is no place for despair.
Acknowledment to Mr. Ramashray Prasad Singh from Begusarai, Prakash Louise from Bihar Social Institute Patna, Vijay Vatsayan from Samastipur and Vijay Kumar from Patna.
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