Sushanta Talukdar

Guwahati: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Sunday announced Rs. 500 crore Central assistance for relief and rehabilitation of the flood-affected people of Assam. He also promised more assistance, if the State government required, for dealing with the immediate problem of food, shelter and medicines.

Mr. Patil also promised that there would not be any problem in arranging Rs. 83,000 crore required over a period of 10 to 15 years for taming the Brahmaputra and other Himalayan rivers and deal with the floods caused by these rivers.

SANTOSH SINGH

PATNA, SEPTEMBER 14 With the Kosi accumulating over 1 lakh cubic metres of silt in its river basin

the Saptakosi river, that flows from Nepal into India, shifted its course for the first time since 1954 and caused the worst floods in Bihar

function open_new_popwin() { newwd=window.open("image/20080915/Slide_show/photo_gallery.htm","","height=600,width=600,scrollbar=yes"); newwd.moveTo(200,75); }   A photography exhibition in Drik Gallery, Dhaka captures worlds of Bangladesh

Centre and state trade blame over floods

Did the Kosi really change its course this time?

The fishes are gasping, not out of the water this time. Rather in the water itself!

NEW DELHI

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a Rs 8,922 crores financial package to restructure the areas devastated by the recent floods in Bihar.

Earlier, the PM had sanctioned Rs 1,000 crores for the flood relief in the state.

Business Standard / New Delhi September 12, 2008, 0:06 IST

DOWN TO EARTH
Sunita Narain / New Delhi September 12, 2008, 2:47 IST

We were so greedy for land, we killed the very channels that prevented rivers from flooding.

This year, for once, the devastating floods of Bihar, where Kosi has swollen to expand across the state seem to have touched us. I say this because, last year, when the same region was under reeling under what was said to be the worst floods in living history, we simply did not know. Media had flashed a few images but it was just more of the same: rivers flood this region every year. So what