Gandak bund breaches,flood waters enter several Bihar villages

(REO CAL1) The Bihar government today decided to run mega relief camps in Gopalganj district after the newly errected ring bund on river Gandak caved in at Simaria village today. Principal secretary disaster management Vyasji after emerging from the emergency review meeting convened by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the mega relief camps would be run on the lines of similar camps opened in five north Bihar districts after the Kosi deluge in 2008. He said each mega camp would have the facility to house 500 evacuees who would be provided with food and medicines.Fodder would be provided to cattleheads at the camps, he said. If the meaga camps have to run for a long period then the government might think in terms of opening Anganwadi centres and schools at the camps, he said. The government, he said, had also decided to depute mobile police squads in flood affected areas to safegurad the properties of the people taking shelter in mega relief camps. Vyasji said that principal secretary of Public Helath and Engineering Department(PHED) Ravindra Pawar had been rushed to Gopalganj to oversee the relief and rescue operations following floods caused by river Gandak Five battalions of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had already been stationed at Gopalganj and two battalions of the NDRF had been stationed at Chapra and one unit at Siwan. The district administration of Gopalganj and Siwan had already been provided Rs 14 Crore and Rs 5 crore for meeting any eventuality, Vyasji said.