Death toll in Bhojpur flood increases to 36

Kumar Rajiv Nayan

Ara: With five more deaths under three different blocks in  Bhojpur district on Sunday, the death toll in the Ganga flood in Bhojpur district increased to 36.

Pinki Ojha, 35, wife of Mithilesh Ojha of Chanda-Kewatiya village under Bahoranpur police outpost under Bihia block , had gone to the field to get her son Veeru Ojha defecate on Sunday taking her another son Anand Ojha in her lap. Veeru Ojha, in the meantime, fell into the flood water and was swept away in the current. Pinki, in her bid to save him, drowned to death along with Anand Ojha. Later, the villagers fished out the bodies of both the sons but the body of Pinki Ojha is yet to be found.

In another incident, a nine year old boy Vikas Kumar, son of Upendra Yadav, of Paiga village under Sinha police outpost drowned to death in the flood water of Ganga at Parashurampur village on Sunday. In yet another incident, a 35 year old unidentified man was drowned to death in Barans river at Ratnadh village under Garhani police station.

Commissioner, Patna division, Anand Kishore and the Principal Secretary, Water Resource Department, Arun Kumar Singh along with Bhojpujr DM Birendra Prasad Yadav, SP Kshatranil Singh and other officials of Bhojpur district took stock of the situation at Ara and Barahara flood affected areas on Sunday and visited the relief camps and interacted with the displaced people there. They reached a relief camp at western Babura where 1,200 persons are fed while 650 persons have taken shelter there.

The commissioner tried to know about fodder and medicines from the Block Animal Husbandry Officer, Shailendra Kumar, and Medical Officers: Dr Manjeet and Dr A Hassan and rebuked them at their reply. He directed the DM to ensure that each of those living at the relief camps is provided utensils (plate, glass and bowl) and minimum of clothes (within a limit of Rs 600 per head) and to ensure life saving drugs including anti -venom serum at the relief centres. He asked the DM that the displaced persons and their cattle had to be kept separately. He also directed the DM to run schools for the displaced children by the Aganwadi Sevikas at the relief camps. The commissioner directed the officials to run community kitchen on a high ground to supply cooked food to marooned people still trapped in remote villages.