Politics on Flood must Stop: Nitish

Patna: Aug. 25, 2008

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, during a press conference following his weekly Janata Darbar in Patna on Monday, while referring to the dire flood situation in the state, said that this was not a time to win the war of rhetoric but a time for everyone to come together and help those who have been badly affected by the flood in North Bihar.

"I urge the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to not indulge in petty politics by trying to divide people of Bihar on flood-relief issue. By not doing so, he would be rendering a huge service to the state," the Chief Minister said.

Kumar said that Bihar was in a much bigger mess than ever before and while not a single paisa has come from the Center in the form of flood-relief, the opposition leaders were already indulging in cheap politics to score short-term political victory.

"Central leaders came to Bihar, conducted aerial surveys of the flood-hit areas, held lofty press conferences and then left for New Delhi. But what did they do to alleviate ground reality in the state? If I tried to answer that question, it would stir up a lot of things," Kumar said.

The Chief Minister also asked the people of Bihar to ignore rumors and innuendos spread by the opposition leaders who had no interest in solving problems but were only interested in settling political scores in a time of catastrophe.

Predicting even worse days ahead, Kumar said the need of the hour was to ensure those stranded in the flood were safely transported to the nearest relief camps in next 3 to 4 days and then try to keep the damage level to a minimum.