Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of the flood situation in Bihar, one of the worst-hit states in India. Apprising the PM about the present flood situation in the state in which 95 lives have been lost, Nitish said that Bihar had suffered immensely because of the floods in the northern and southern parts of the state. Nitish said that at least 28 districts in the state were hit severely by the floods.“The very serious condition that we see today never occurred earlier. The only way to get rid of this is through desiltation. There is a need for national silt management policy,” he was quoted by news agencies as saying. He also expressed concerns that the Farakka barrage in West Bengal had led to silting in the Ganga and exacerbated the floods in Bihar.

After meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar said he feels like “crying” over the condition of the River Ganga, which has affected 22 lakh people in Bihar, and killed 22 in the last three days. The Chief Minister of Bihar said that his state has received 14% less rain than is standard for the monsoon; the devastation, he said, is man-made. While UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh remain the worst hit states, water has started receding in Gujarat and Rajasthan, raising the hope that normalcy will be restored quickly in these states. The rescue operations are underway in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.