Strike leaves Bihar without water, power

The matter created uproarious scenes in the state Assembly. Opposition leader Rabri Devi came to the Assembly with a ‘lantern’ whereas her party members raised slogans demanding the resignation of the Nitish Kumar government. Admitting its inability in handling the situation, Energy Minister Bijyendra Yadav, in a statement made at the Legislative Council, said that the government had never imagined that the situation will turn so bad. It even failed to rope in army engineers to tide over the situation and in its efforts to take help from the Power Grid.

Meanwhile, the state faced a complete black-out, except the Governor’s House, Chief Minister’s residence and the two Houses of the state legislature. For the common man, things got worse as water supply was also badly hit. Train services were adversely affected with a large number of long-distance trains coming to a halt. Hospitals services were also affected.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the situation, a Bench of the Patna High Court headed by Chief Justice J N Bhatt summoned the state chief secretary and other concerned officials and directed them to restore power supply within a few hours. The matter will come up for hearing tomorrow.