Flood situation in Bihar worsens as embankments of Kosi, Bagmati rivers breached
Patna (PTI): Flood situation in several parts of Bihar worsened on Monday as embankments of Kosi river in Darbhanga district and Bagmati river in Sitamarhi were breached, officials said.
The Kosi river was in spate and breached its embankment near Kartarpur block, inundating Kirtarpur and Ghanshyampur villages in Darbhanga late on Sunday, while seepage was reported in the embankment of Bagmati river in Runni Saidpur block in Sitamarhi district, they said.
"The flood situation has worsened with fresh embankment breaches but it is under control. There is nothing to panic," an official said.
The state water resources and disaster management departments have been working on a war footing, he said.
"Altogether six incidents of embankment breach have so far been reported from various parts of the state. Some of them have already been repaired and work is going on for others," Bihar Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary told PTI on Monday.
The embankment of the Bagmati River at Madhkaul village in Sitamarhi and the Gandak river's embankment in West Champaran were damaged due to excessive water pressure, resulting in inundation in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve, another official said.
"Water flowing above the embankments was reported from Valmikinagar and Kiratpur in Darbhanga. But now water level in several rivers started receding. No casualty has been reported so far in Bihar due to the flood", the minister said.
Considering the gravity of the flood situation in north Bihar, six more teams of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDRF) from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Ranchi in Jharkhand are being deployed, he said.
They are being engaged in addition to the existing 12 teams of NDRF and 22 of State Disaster Management Authority (SDRF) deployed in the relief and rescue operation in the flood-affected districts," said a bulletin issued by the disaster management department on Monday.
"Despite water levels receding in several small rivers, the overall situation remained grim with over 16 lakh people affected by the deluge. No fatality has been reported so far," another official said.
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2019 video of Kashmiri woman talking to Rahul Gandhi shared online as recent with false claim
New Delhi (PTI): Amid the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir polls, a video of a teary-eyed woman seemingly confronting Rahul Gandhi on an airplane has been widely shared on social media with some users claiming that she was a Kashmiri Pandit living abroad who questioned the Congress leader for opposing the PM over Kashmir's matters.
A PTI Fact Check investigation found this claim to be false. The video is from August 24, 2019, when Gandhi, along with other leaders, tried to visit Srinagar but had to turn back to Delhi after being prevented by the authorities from leaving the airport. The woman approached Gandhi in the airplane to explain the condition of Kashmiri people in the Valley following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5.
The viral video was shared by Facebook user Arun Chaudhary, who wrote, "Kashmiri Pandits living abroad surrounded Rahul Gandhi while he was travelling in an airplane and asked him why he opposes Modi on Kashmir issues? Rahul Gandhi could not give any answer to this, the national media could hardly show this news."
To cross-check the veracity of the claim, the Desk conducted a customised Google search using relevant keywords.
The same video was posted on the official YouTube channel of Outlook Magazine on August 25, 2019. The description of the video mentioned that a Kashmiri woman who met Gandhi told him how her life was affected due to the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent lockdown in the Valley.
According to a Dainik Bhaskar report, Gandhi and other opposition leaders had reached Srinagar after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 but were sent back to Delhi by the administration. During this, a Kashmiri woman met him on the plane and narrated her ordeal.
On further investigation, PTI Fact Check found Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other Congress leaders had also shared the same video on social media platform X.
Hence, the investigation made it clear that the viral video was five years old and was being falsely shared as a recent incident.
