Patna: As flood threat in Kosi river is looming large, Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said the situation in under control and state government is taking effective measures to ensure safety of people and cattle.
The Chief Minister had on Sunday held a top-level meeting at Birpur near Nepal border to assess the situation.
"The state government will monitor it closely for next two days, and there is no need to panic," he said.
Manjhi also conducted an aerial survey of the Kosi region and said that people living outside the embankments were not facing threat of floods.
He said the state government has targeted evacuation of 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh people living within the embankment area and urged them to move to relief camps.
As many as 107 relief camps and 30 cattle camps have been set up in the flood-prone districts of the state, while authorities have evacuated 45,000 people from districts likely to be hit by floods.
Meanwhile, the Central government has stepped up precautionary measures by keeping the Indian Air Force (IAF) on standby and deploying the army to the state.
Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth had on Sunday chaired a National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) meeting in New Delhi in the wake of a drastic rise in the Kosi river's water level.
The danger of floods loomed large over the Kosi belt along Bihar-Nepal border following discharge of 1.25 lakh cusecs of water after the Nepalese Army conducted two low-intensity blasts to partially remove the landslide debris blocking Bhote Kosi, one of the tributaries of Kosi. The release of water has raised the water level in the river in Bihar.
