Watch | How Annual Flooding, Petty Corruption Threaten the Residents of This North Bihar Village
On the banks of river Bagmati, in North Bihar’s Samastipur district, lies a village called Gangaura. During annual rainfall in Bihar, Gangaura village is always one of the worst-hit. Geographically, Gangaura is surrounded by villages of Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga in the north. This year alone, the village was flooded five times by the gushing waters of the Bagmati river, displacing hundreds of people.
To help villages and livelihoods, the Bihar government has been constructing embankments along the course of the river. But once aimed at easing the problem of flooding, the embankments have ended up aggravating it instead. None of Bihar’s political parties has addressed the issue of annual flooding or has reconsidered the construction of embankments. Instead, to appease people, candidates promise that they would build even more embankments. But this promise only feeds into the corrupt nexus of the government with the contractors.
This article went live on November fifth, two thousand twenty, at five minutes past nine in the morning.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
