National highway becomes home for thousands

Here is the plight of Bihar flood affected people who are forced to live on the national highway for days, endlessly awaiting relief.

"We have no food left after our stock of sattu (roasted gram powder) provided by a voluntary organization ended Monday. For the last nine days we have been living dangerously on the highway, hoping to get some relief," as per Munheshwar Jha who is among hundreds of people in flood-ravaged Bihar's Darbhanga district.

There is nothing left to eat except a little dry chura (beaten rice). They do not know when the wait will end.

"Two days ago, a few food packets were dropped by air force helicopters. But it was impossible for old people like us to catch them as hundreds of hungry people fought with each other for it," a frail Jha said.

"All sections of society ... from landowners to landless laborers, the poor and the rich are forced to take shelter on the national highway. Nature's fury hardly discriminates," said Narayan Chowdhary, a schoolteacher.

The floods in Darbhanga have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, now living either on the highway or on embankments without food and water for days.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Bihar have been displaced and are without essentials including medicines for days in the floods the UN says are the "worst in living memory".

According to the preliminary estimate made by the disaster management department over 12 million people spread over 19 of Bihar's 38 districts are affected by floods. The disaster has claimed 91 lives so far.

News Credit:Bihar Times

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