by Alok Mohit
Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has written a letter to his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath, requesting him to complete the pending flood protection work at Sitab Diara, the birthplace of Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), at the earliest.
The letter written ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Sitab Diara on October 11, JP’s birth anniversary, is being seen as Nitish Kumar’s effort to make it clear that JP and Sitab Diara hold special place in his heart.
Sitab Diara village in Saran district of Bihar is situated at the confluence of Ganga and Ghaghra (also known as Saryu) rivers near Uttar Pradesh border.
In the letter, Kumar said during the rainy season the village faced threat of soil erosion. He said there was an urgent need to construct a ring bund (about 7.5 km in length) from the Ghaghra river side for the protection of Sitab Diara from floods. In 2017-18, work on flood protection and construction of ring bund had started on about 4-km land in Bihar and about 3.5-km land in Uttar Pradesh. While the Bihar government had completed the work on its side, it was still pending in the Uttar Pradesh region.
Kumar has requested Yogi Adityanath to direct the authorities concerned to complete the pending work to save the village from the threat of recurring floods and soil erosion.
