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Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
Homeless and forced to take to the streets for shelter, the people of Muzaffarpur have been left battered by the recent floods. Residents allege, hardly any measures have been taken by the government or the local administration to provide them any relief.
Ahead of Bihar Assembly elections, The Quint visited flood-hit Sahebganj in Muzaffarpur to gauge the situation post floods, the relief work by the government, and the sentiments of locals.
"We somehow managed to escape the floods but now we have no jobs, no money, no food. Had to take loans to buy food and water but how will we repay the loans? We should have rather died in the floods," said Rampati Devi, a resident of Sahebganj.
The state government had assured that the community kitchen would be set up in all wards across the flood-hit districts to ensure no one was hungry. At least 271 community kitchens were reportedly being operated to feed more than one lakh flood-affected people.
When The Quint spoke to the people, this is what they said:
Badan Sahni, Head of Usti Panchayat in Sahebganj, said they stopped receiving ration from the block after the initial few days, so they were forced to stop the community kitchens in all wards. "We have no clue why they stopped providing ration. The community kitchen ran for close to 10 days. It ran for seven days in ward 2 and for four days in wards 5 and 6. After that, we stopped receiving ration, what could we do?" Sahni added.
Bihar government had assured of disbursing gratuitous relief of Rs 6,000 each to every flood-affected family in the state.
When The Quint spoke to people in Sahebganj, they said hundreds of names were missing from the list of beneficiaries and didn't receive the money.
"We got no money. The village head told us that our names are not on the list, so we would not receive the money. We got no aid from the government. How much hunger can we bear?" asked Rampati Devi.
"I submitted the list after adding all names. I wrote to the Panchayat too. But don't know why the names were removed from the Block's list," said Ayodhya Ram, a ward member from Paroo.
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