Mayawati blamed the Centre on Monday for ignoring the state’s predicament and meting out step-motherly treatment to UP with regard to providing funds for flood-relief operations.
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati blamed the Centre on Monday for ignoring the state’s predicament and meting out step-motherly treatment to UP with regard to providing funds for flood-relief operations.
After an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Gorakhpur and Lakhimpur Kheri, Mayawati said: “The Centre can give Rs1,000 crore to Bihar, but for UP, it won’t spare a penny.”
Similarly, in Lakhimpur Kheri, after inspecting the area where the railway track had been washed away by the swirling waters, she said: “The railways ministry has failed to discharge its responsibility here… we are trying to do the best we can with our limited resources.”
About 100 metres of railway track has been washed away on the Gonda-Pallia section of the north-eastern railway in Lakhimpur Kheri district, completely disrupting rail traffic.
UP is also reeling from a spate of floods this year. Indiscreet discharge of water from Nepal, as in the case of Bihar, has compounded the problem in UP, too. In Bahraich, Srawasti, Lakhimpur Kheri and Balrampur districts on the Nepal border, excessive discharge from dams in Nepal has wrought havoc. Water released from the Cheesapani dam in Nepal’s Banke district has flooded hundreds of villages in Bahraich adjoining the Girijapuri barrage.
A senior official told DNA that every year during rains, Nepal released millions of cusecs of water without any advance warning as a result of which the Rapti, Ghaghra and Sharda flood the villages on the border.
Besides, an exceptionally good rainfall this year is also responsible for the present situation in UP. Whether it is the Gomti in Lucknow, the Ganga in Ballia, the Ghaghra and Saryu in Gonda and Bahraich or the Sharda in Lakhimpur Kheri, all the rivers are in spate.
“Overall rains in UP have been 25 per cent above normal. But in east UP, every district on an average has recorded as much as 65 per cent above-normal rains,” says LC Ram, director (forecasting) at the state meteorological department.
But the worst is perhaps still to come. After the waters recede, people in the affected areas would have to fight a long battle with the outbreak of infectious diseases.
Quizzed about the grim situation, an official spokesman insisted on highlighting that the state government had released Rs185 crore for relief and rehabilitation operations.
g_deepak@dnaindia.net
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