Modi asks Lalu not to extract pol milage from flood situation

Patna, Aug 1 (UNI) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today asked RJD supremo Lalu Prasad to desist from trying to extract political mileage from the present flood situation and instead use his influence in getting the funds released from the Centre.

After a review meeting on flood situation with MLAs of Kosi region, Mr Modi told newspersons here that Mr Prasad was 'misleading' the people by making allegation that the state government had not approached the Centre for funds to tackle the natural calamities and the UPA government was unable to release the funds.

''The state water resources department had sent a formal request to the Centre for release of Rs 2882 crores for repairing and construction of embankments, but not a single paise had been released so far'', he observed.

''The funds released by the Centre, was based on the recommendation of 12th Finance Commission and Gadgil formula, while Mr Prasad had done nothing to provide such finacial assistatnce to Bihar'', Mr Modi maintained.

The Deputy CM termed the allegation of inadequate relief operation among flood victims as ''rubbish'' and said that opposition parties were makig hue and cry over the issue to gain political mileage.

He said the state government was carrying out relief operation on a war footing with its own limited resourses and any shortcomings in this regard would be removed soon. More than 1722 boats had been pressed into service to carry out relief operation in 3152 flood affected villages in 28 districts, he added.

On his arrival from Mauritious, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would make an aerial survey of the flood affected areas on August 3, he informed.

UNI