Funds reach Bihar every year, but not villagers

Funds reach Bihar every year, but not villagers
SUNETRA CHOUDHURY

NARDARIA (DARBHANGA), AUGUST 20: Every year this season, the officials in Bihar government indulge in a ritualistic chanting. They pray to the Centre for more money. Nature gives a reason: the floods.

The money arrives but no one really knows where it goes. The villagers who struggles through the annual cycle of displacement and devastation waits endlessly for relief.

Driving down the Samastipur-Darbhanga road, it seems you are crossing a coastal area. Water fills the stretch to the horizon, expelling various villages on to the roads. The villagers sit around, looking into the water as if there lies the solution.

How's this year compared to the last one? ``You can see for yourself -- and it is still rising.'' They have received no relief material yet. They have been told that the flood scene is not that bad this year. It's a different matter that Patna is telling the Centre just the opposite.

Surrounded by the furious waters of the River Kamla, almost a quarter of the people of Nardaria village is staying on the road. The 1,500-odd people who used to inhabit the village have come to terms with the fact that for another month or two, they will have no work, their children no school. Their primary concern is if they have saved up enough to last this period.

A country-made boat which caters to this village and ferries about 30 people at one time is the lifeline for the community. They shuttle up and down in the boat, paying Re 1 one way -- men to feed their cattle, women to collect firewood and bring back the children. ``The main road is a temporary refuge till it is swallowed by the flood water as well,'' said one villager.

It takes approximately 15 minutes to reach Nardaria, provided the water is calm. The fact that the administration is defunct is evident everywhere. ``We do not have a block development officer, he got transferred for some kind of fraud,'' someone tells you nonchalantly. Moti Lal Yadav, Express learns later, had allegedly usurped public money in the Indira Awas Yojna and the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna for which he had been suspended two months ago.

An official council worker visited the village occasionally but inspected from the road itself while the villagers has not seen the District Magistrate.

Pradip Kumar, studying in Darbhanga University, was taking the boat that day to see his sister's family. He wanted to know why the media was interested because nothing ever changed and only ``the DMs and the BDOs and others became fatter with money.'' They point to a spot somewhere in the horizon. ``That is supposed to be the road to the village,'' said SureshBasei, and continued, ``They floated a tender of Rs 5 lakh to build it last year. No one knows what has become of it.''

As the village approached, what appeared first was a decrepit structure made of red bricks. ``That is our primary school which was built just three yearsago.'' It has been closed for the past two weeks as the water level reached waist-high.

Those whose houses had not been inundated yet were none the luckier. A young man said, ``Look, I am 20 years old and that is exactly the number of times I have seen my house being built from scratch.'' Sitting with his wife and year-old child, Ritu Sahni said, pointing to the yellow water: ``That is what my child drinks.'' They cannot count their problems because they say they are too many -- food, water, sanitation, health, hunger, money and totalapathy on the part of authorities.

``The only people who get relief are those who go and settle in the stadium in town, as it is right under their nose,'' said another student, Shanu Kumar Nigam. Their expectations are not very high. ``We know that ministers and officials eat up the money, but shouldn't even one per cent of it filter down to us? We haven't got anything.''

WHAT THEY SAY

S.D. Sharma, Relief Commissioner: We are working roundthe clock to oversee the situation. The appropriaterelief material has been provided to all the affecteddistricts.

Ram Prasad Paswan, sarpanch: I meet the DMand the other authorities every Thursday and althoughI have asked them to supply relief material as wereally need it, they tell me that it is not seriousenough yet.

Ram Bahadur Yadav, Darbhanga District Magistrate: Iinspected the area yesterday and said that the reliefwork should start from today. But it is not late aspeople are used to it, so they would've madearrangements.

Radha Singh, Irrigation Secretary: I am not in aposition to talk about it as it is in the local leveland the DM is given freedom to work at his owndiscretion. You probably went to those villages whichhad got missed out, there are probably many otherswhich have got 100 per cent relief.

PROMISES

*One quintal grain per month (per family)

*Rs 200 for the purchase of food in an emergency (perfamily)

*Rs 50 as cash dole for purchasing sundry items likesalt, etc. (per family)

*Deployment of boats

*Matchboxes and candles

*Kerosene

* Polythene sheets

WHAT NADARIA GOT: NOTHING