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Bihar flood victims get to eat rice filled with insects

The DM has instructed all government personnel or doctors present in the community kitchen centre to first eat the food themselves and then serve the flood victims

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Days after the shocking case of flood victims in Katihar of Bihar feeding on rats due to lack of government food relief, another appalling instance of insects being cooked along with rice in a relief camp in Muzaffarpur has come to light.

The state government has established 18 community kitchens in this town meant to serve food to flood-affected people. On a visit to Babhangawan Relief Camp set up in Aurai Prakhand area near River Bagmati, the quality of food being prepared bears a glaring display of apathy from relief providers.

Villagers leave their homes in low lying areas every year during floods and take refuge in the dam built under Project Bagmati. There they expect the state to provide relief, but the one they get is no good to anyone.

In the camp, insect-infested unwashed rice was cooked. The cooks tried to conceal the preparation by blocking the entry to the kitchen through curtains.

When confronted with the report, Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Alok Ranjan Ghosh assured to take complete cognizance of the matter. "This is not my charitable work. It is the responsibility of the district administration to provide relief to the flood victims. Quality of food is given importance and everyone is served on steel plates", he further said.

The DM has instructed all government personnel or doctors present in the community kitchen centre to first eat the food themselves and then serve the flood victims.

Earlier, flood victims in Katihar district's Dangi Tola village, where some 300 families have been affected, had said they were are forced to survive on rodents in the absence of relief.

"Our house has been destroyed and there are no arrangements for us. We are depending on rats to fill our stomachs as they are easy to find in the floods," Talla Murmur, a local, had said.

Rushing to control the damage, state agriculture minister Prem Kumar instructed the district magistrate to provide immediate relief to the victims.

Muzaffarpur is not unfamiliar to government apathy and negligence by state officials. In June, an outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome claimed over a hundred lives in what was widely seen as gross administrative mismanagement and lack of credible crisis response.

― Zee Media Newsroom

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