Addressing the program on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that I congratulate the Water Resources Department for organizing this inauguration, inauguration, foundation stone and commencement program today. He said that inauguration, inauguration, foundation and work of 30 different schemes of Irrigation and Flood Sector of Water Resources Department costing about Rs 1,470 crore have been started today. It has inaugurated 23 schemes worth Rs 1,082 crore and the foundation stone of 7 schemes costing Rs 388 crore.
The Chief Minister said that in today’s program, 3 former Water Resources Ministers have also participated, who have done various important works in this department. Today, even the work done in this department by Late Ramashray Babu is remembered. He said that Bihar is a populous state with very high population density. 89 percent of its population lives in villages and 76 percent of its population is dependent on agriculture.
The state is prone to floods and sometimes drought. In such a situation, the Department of Water Resources has an important role in water management. He said that a large area of ​​Bihar is affected by the floods. The 68 lakh 80 thousand hectare land here is affected by floods which is 73.06 percent of the total geographical area of ​​Bihar. The area of ​​400 lakh hectares of the entire country is affected by floods and 17.2 percent of the flood affected area of ​​the entire country is from Bihar.
The Chief Minister said that between 1990 and 2005, 2 lakh 65 thousand hectare irrigation capacity was created, while between 2006 and 2020 4 lakh 6 thousand hectare irrigation capacity was created. Also, 17 lakh 25 thousand hectares of depleted irrigation capacity was restored.
He said that the analysis of the works of the Water Resources Department in 2016 revealed that more time of this department is being spent in flood management, due to which irrigation related schemes are not completed in time. In the year 2016 in the Department of Water Resources, for the control of flood and creation of irrigation capacity, it was divided into two parts. This also facilitated flood control and irrigation projects were also completed on time.
The Chief Minister said that 22 districts of Bihar were affected by floods in the year 2007, Kosi tragedy occurred in the year 2008, flood situation also occurred in the year 2016, year 2017, 2019. This year too, due to heavy rains in the Terai regions of Nepal and heavy rains in the northern part of the state, a population of 83 lakh 62 thousand of 1,333 panchayats of 130 blocks of 130 districts of the state were affected by the floods.
More than 5 lakh population of the flood-affected areas were sterilized. Arrangements were made for people’s living and food. Community kitchens were run, where more than 1 million people ate food every day. Arrangements were made for people in relief camps too. Relief packets were distributed through air draping. Now the situation in flood affected areas is improving.
The Chief Minister said that we have always believed that disaster victims have the first right over the treasury of the government. In the year 2007, 1 quintal of grain was distributed in the flood affected areas and later for the flood affected areas in the form of cash amount of Rs. 3 thousand for grain and Rs. 3 thousand for utensils and cloth i.e. Rs. 6,000 per family. Gratuits relief was started.
2400 crores in the year 2017, 2100 crores in the year 2019 and so far this year the amount of gratuities relief worth Rs. 629 crores has been sent to their account among 10 lakh 48 thousand flood affected families. Funds will be sent to the remaining families’ accounts as soon as possible. In addition, those whose crops have been wasted, are also being assisted. Due to the possibility of flooding for the next few days, full preparations have been made. The department is fully alert and alert about this.
The Chief Minister said that many works have been done for better management of flood situation. A mathematical paradigm center was established in Patna on 10 February 2018. In this center, more than 90 percent acuracies can be estimated using model studies and artificial intelligence, so that information related to water level and waterfall forecast, real time rainfall and discharge of all major rivers, departmental engineers, disaster management. Becomes available to the department and district administration. This is helping to monitor and safeguard the embankments.
The Chief Minister said that with the aim of establishing an excellent center for research and development, the foundation of the Physical Modeling Center has been laid in Virpur today. Earlier, one had to go to Pune for verification of irrigation schemes. The establishment of a Physical Modeling Center at Virpur will greatly aid Bihar and other states of northern India in the study of flood management. I urge that this plan be completed in time.
The Chief Minister said that after a long meeting with MLAs and Legislators of all parties on 13 July 2019, for the conservation of environment, it was decided to run the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali campaign in mission mode. The water-life-greening campaign means that life is safe between water and greenery. It consists of 11 ingredients. Of this, 7 percent is related to water conservation, one part is related to greenery, one part is related to solar energy, one part is related to weather friendly agriculture and one part is awareness campaign. Pond, Ahar, Pein, Pokhar for water conservation
