Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan on Thursday joined his Cabinet colleague Lalu Prasad Yadav in blaming the Nitish Kumar Government for the catastrophe.The Prime Minister, who undertook an aerial survey of the flooded areas along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, also declared the setting up of a high-level team to coordinate matters with the Government of Nepal. The PMO will also provide material and technical assistance to prevent further deterioration along the embankments and protective structures and promised all other assistance to tide over the crisis.Paswan, who accompanied the PM, returned to castigate the Bihar Government. Interestingly, Paswan’s attack came a day after Kumar met the Prime Minister and urged him to restrain his Cabinet colleagues from indulging in a blame game over the flood.“The state Government is solely responsible for the devastation in Bihar. It is a complete failure of the state Government,” Paswan declared here. Paswan said, as per the agreement, the Centre provides fund while the state is responsible for undertaking maintainance and repair work of the embankment in Nepal. He alleged that despite funds made available by the Centre, the state had failed to undertake repairs.In April, the Water Resources Department had identified two vulnerable points in the Kosi embankment and asked the state to repair it urgently and also provide funds for it, said Paswan. “Despite repeated reminders to repair the damage, the state did nothing till August. Finally, after August 16, they wrote that the embankment was strong,” Paswan claimed.Earlier, Railway Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav too had accused the Bihar Government of “criminal negligence”. On Friday, Lalu wrote to the PM requesting for deployment of an “additional column of Army along with adequate number of boats and helicopters” to speed up relief and rescue operations. “The top priority is to rescue people to safer places,” Lalu said in the letter. Meanwhile, the Railway Ministry has directed all Zonal Railways to transport relief material and fodder by rail, as a special case, from any station to the notified flood affected districts of Bihar, free of charge.
