The flood situation has turned grim in Kusheshwar Asthan, a low-lying area in Bihar's Darbhanga district where rivers meet.
While the residents allege they have received no help from the government, local MLA Sashi Bhushan Hajari told that the situation has turned bad as water flowed in due to heavy rains in Nepal's terai region.
According to the locals, the area gets waterlogged every year during monsoon, yet the government has made no arrangement for boats or to support livelihoods.
"It is difficult to travel from the villages to the market. We are in trouble but the government is doing nothing for us. They announced that they'll provide us with rations but we got nothing. They survey the situation in a helicopter just for show," said Chanu Mukhiya, a resident of rural Kusheshwar Asthan.
He said villagers have to pay for the boat ride from the villages to the main market. The government has made no arrangements for boats.
"If somebody gets ill at night, he can face a lot of hardship. There are no facilities to take them to a hospital," Mukhiya said.
Another resident Vinod Kumar Podha echoed Mukhiya's sentiments and said that everyone is surviving on their own without help from the government. "The area MLA has never visited us," he said.
Sashi Bhushan Hajari, MLA, has another story to tell. He told , "Kusheshwar Asthan is known for floods. But since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has come to power, roads and bridges have been constructed and flooding reduced. Earlier, people used to own at least one boat per family but because of all-round development of the area, most people have stopped keeping boats."
Hajari said the floods are severe this year because Nepal received excessive rain in the terai region and that water came to Kusheshwar Asthan. But the government is ready to tackle the situation, he said.
"Boats are being arranged for people where necessary," said Hajari.
The police station of the area is also submerged in water. The water has snakes and other reptiles.
An assistant sub-inspector of police posted at Kusheshwar Asthan said, "We don't have an option but to work in this situation. Whenever there is flooding in the area, our station gets waterlogged. We have to keep all the important documents and other belongings on tables. We have to use boats when we go for patrolling in the rural areas and pay for them from our pockets for the commute. The government has not even provided us with a boat. "
He informed that there has been no electricity in the area for the past five days.
Hajari said the police station is more than 60 years old and established on low-lying land and so gets waterlogged easily.
"We are planning to shift the police station in Kusheshwar Asthank to an elevated place. We are also trying to shift all government offices built on low-lying land to higher places," he said.
On the matter of people being cramped up in small boats to commute without following social distancing norms in the time of COVID-19, the MLA said most people are illiterate and unaware of the situation.
"They are not following social distancing norms because it's a rural area and people are illiterate. But the people who are aware are following social distancing norms," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )