- Deputy Chief Minister congratulates Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary; states that rivers will get a new lease on life and the severity of floods will be reduced.
Patna : Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the portfolio of Water Resources Minister, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, has congratulated Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in New Delhi between the Government of Bihar and the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. He described this as a significant initiative for the state.
Speaking at a press conference in Patna on Wednesday, Vijay Chaudhary noted that the accumulation of silt in rivers is a primary cause of their degradation and the severity of floods. The Government of Bihar has been advocating for a national silt management policy for the past decade and a half.
The Deputy Chief Minister stated that the gravity of the silt problem was first recognized in 2011–12. At that time, the then Chief Minister Nitish Kumar raised the issue during a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in New Delhi. Upon his invitation, the then Union Minister Pawan Bansal was taken on an aerial survey from Buxar to Farakka to assess the situation caused by silt accumulation in the Ganga.
Vijay Chaudhary mentioned that in 2014, the need for a silt management policy—specifically addressing the rapid, uncontrolled accumulation of silt in the Bihar stretch following the construction of the Farakka Barrage—was raised with the then Union Minister for Water Resources, Uma Bharti. Subsequently, an expert committee on silt management was constituted for the first time. Based on the committee’s report, a national framework for sediment management was proposed in 2022. While suggestions were invited from state governments, the policy has yet to be finalized.
The Deputy Chief Minister added that, under the leadership of Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, the Water Resources Department of the Bihar Government has recently drafted the ‘Bihar Water Resource Restoration and Silt Management Policy-2026.’ This policy incorporates processes for silt disposal and outlines practical measures to address the issue. Based on this policy, the Chief Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New Delhi on November 3rd.
He stated that this initiative would facilitate the desilting of rivers, leading to their rejuvenation and helping to mitigate the severity of floods. Furthermore, the extracted silt can be utilized as fill material for road construction and other development projects. This will also help curb the removal of fertile topsoil from farmers’ fields.
