Relief and Rehabilitation Work
In response to the disaster, widely reported as the region's worst flood in 50 years, Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his help in dealing with the "catastrophe".
The Prime Minister declared a “national calamity” on 28 August and earmarked US$230 million in aid for the region. Rescue operations were carried out by the Indian Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and non-government organizations. Indian Air Force helicopters dropped relief supplies in the worst-hit districts. Mumbai Fire Brigade sent a 22-member disaster management team to help in relief work.
Chief Minister Kumar requested a rehabilitation package of Rs 145 billion from the central government for the flood ravaged Kosi region.
The Bihar government returned funds from Gujarat for relief work because of purported differences with the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.
On 1 September, describing the floods as a “disaster,” the Dalai Lama gave 100,000 rupees to the Bihar government for relief work.
The Government of Bihar initiated Kosi Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Programme covering 30,000 affected families in Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura district based on a pilot project implemented by ODR Collaborative, a network of organizations, supporting the Government and an owner driven reconstruction policy was formulated to support each family with Rs. 55,000 to construct their own house. After signing an agreement with the World Bank in January 2011, this programme has been upscaled to cover 100,000 families for reconstruction of hazard safe houses. The cost per house will be Rs. 55,000 ($1200) with an additional cost of Rs. 2,300 ($50) for a toilet and Rs. 5,000 ($110) for solar powered lighting. In cases where beneficiaries do not own land, the Government of Bihar will provide additional assistance of Rs. 5000 ($110) for the people to buy the land. Towards this project, the World Bank is contributing $220 million. The Government of Bihar has also partnered with ODR Collaborative and UNDP to continue the social and technical facilitation and capacity building for this 'owner driven reconstruction' programme. Technical guidelines have been brought out to enable owners to build houses with various local materials including bamboo.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Bihar Flood
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