Smoke and mirrors: What ban on cooking after 9 am in rural Bihar means

But why was the advisory issued? And does the risk of fire increase after 9 am?

The decision seems to be a part of desperate measures taken to curb incidents of fire in the rural and semi-rural parts of the state. As the day progresses, a hot, dry westerly wind — known as pachhua hawa in the local dialects — sweeps across the plains, increasing the risk of fires. The recent incidents in which over 800 homes in three Darbhanga villages were gutted were reportedly caused after flames of kitchen fires were fanned by strong westerly winds — and whose spread in some cases was contained only because thick bamboo clusters came in the way. Villagers also often burn dry wheat shoots to roast gram, hohra or orah in local parlance. Sparks can fly during the process.

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But will it not inconvenience people in the rural areas?

Such an advisory was unheard of in Bihar, and most villagers do not seem to yet know about it. The advisory says violators can be punished with a fine of an unspecified amount and a jail term of up to two years, but there is no police supervision or mechanism to monitor compliance. District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police across the state have left it to BDOs, mukhiyas and sarpanchs to ensure compliance. Politicians criticising the advisory have said it directly interferes with the people’s way of living, but there have been no complaints from any side so far, and even the Disaster Management Control Room is unclear about the scope and seriousness of the advisory.

But how serious is the threat of fire in the villages?

As the state reels under a particularly hot summer, the damage from fire has been quite unprecedented: so far, about 22,000 homes and cattle sheds have been fully or partially destroyed in fires, and 160 people and 980 heads of cattle have perished in incidents of fire in the last 40 days. This summer has seen an at least threefold increase in fires over last summer. The threat of fire is common and serious in villages where most houses have thatched roofs. With water bodies drying up and most village waterpumps not working, getting water to fight fires is extra difficult in summer. The Nitish Kumar government had taken a decision to make available small fire tenders that can travel on narrow village lanes to all of the 850-plus police stations in 2010; only 173 police stations have so far got a fire tender. In the case of the Darbhanga fire, one fire tender reached the spot after six hours, and two others could make it only the next morning, showing the lack of preparedness to tackle village fires.

Given CM Nitish Kumar’s focus on social legislation such as the ban on liquor, does this law too have a larger social context?

Not really. The liquor ban has a strong social context, and was a response to an election promise and a long-standing demand. The kitchen advisory has triggered mostly bewilderment, and critics have asked the government to work on better and more effective ways to prevent and fight fires rather than issue difficult-to-implement and, therefore, often meaningless advisories. Disaster Management Minister Prof Chandrashekhar has been defensive, demanding to know, “What will happen if people try to eat before 9 am for a few days?” The Arwal youth who threw a slipper at CM Nitish Kumar earlier this month, thus bringing the advisory to national attention, asked a trickier question: “Are you not a Hindu? How can you can there will be no havan after 9 am?”

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