Mulayam Singh Visits Flood-hit Areas in Bihar

Patna: Sept. 3, 2008

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and party General Secretary Amar Singh, after conducting an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas in Bihar on Wednesday, said it was impossible to realize the extent of the disaster unless one saw it first hand from the above.

"To say that the situation is catastrophic is an understatement," Yadav who becomes the latest leader to visit Bihar to survey flood areas following the recent parade of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L. K. Advani, said at a press conference at Patna Airport.

The SP leader advised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to gather up all the resources, government and private, and initiate a massive relief and rehabilitation effort to ensure normalcy was restored in North Bihar in a speedy manner and steps were taken to ensure such disasters do not happen again in future.

Yadav also regretted the fact that he was not in power in Uttar Pradesh.

"If I had been running the state, I would have given Rs. 100 crore to Bihar at the very first sign of the impending disaster," the former CM of Uttar Pradesh said adding he would still hand over a check of Rs. 1 crore to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to benefit flood victims in Bihar.