With large parts of Bihar reeling under flood, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met Prime Minister Mammohan Singh on Sunday and sought central assistance to the tune of over Rs 8,000 crore to expedite relief operations.

During his 30 minute meeting with Singh, Nitish asked for funds from the Centre to carry out relief and rescue operations on a war footing. As many as 18 districts, mostly in north Bihar, are badly affected by the flood. The chief minister also met President Pratibha Patil and Vice President Hamid Ansari. Bihar government sources described the two meetings as courtesy calls.

One killed
 
One person was killed and 12 people, including a woman, were injured as police lathicharged hundreds of angry people who demanded adequate flood relief and ransacked the Sonbarsa block office in Saharsa on Sunday.

District Magistrate Niranjan Kumar Choudhry said that one Bino Sharma died in a government hospital. He announced Rs one lakh as ex-gratia for Sharma’s family.

Choudhry said nearly 2,000 flood victims of Kopa and Pararia panchayats, who had gathered at the block office for relief, got angry when they were told that there was no relief material.

As the Block Development Officer Prabhakar Prasad Singh was absent, the villagers went on the rampage damaging furniture and documents.

To control the enraged villagers, the police used batons resulting in injury to 12 people, including Sharma and Asok Mukhiya. While Sharma succumbed to his injuries, Mukhiya’s condition was critical.

The state government suspended BDO Singh on the charge of dereliction of duty in distributing relief, Choudhry said.