Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths, which included seven women, and announced an ex-gratia amount of ₹4 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased.
Forty-six people, including 37 children, died in separate incidents of drowning across Bihar on the festival of ‘Jitiya’ or ‘Jivitputrika’ over the last 24 hours, a government official said.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar condole the deaths, out of which seven women, and declared an ex-gratia amount of ₹ 4 lakh each for the next of kin of the dead.
There were reports of drowning deaths from East and West Champaran, Aurangabad, Kaimur, Buxar, Siwan, Rohtas, Saran, Patna, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Gopalganj and Arwal districts.
“So far, 43 bodies have been fished out. The kin of the victims will be given ₹4 lakh ex-gratia. Eight of them have already been disbursed,” a disaster management department (DMD) official said.
The DMD has pressed several teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) for search and rescue operations.
Mothers are celebrating the festival of ‘Jitiya’ in this season for the welfare and prosperity of children. The tragedies have occurred when children with their mothers went to take a holy dip in different water bodies.
The children drowned at eight places in Aurangabad district – four at Itahat village under Baruna police station area and another four at Kushaha village of Madanpur police station.
Three minor boys drowned in the Durgawati river while taking a public bath in Bhabhua according to reports received from Kaimur, while four other minor boys met their watery deaths in Mohania police station area when they were taking a bath in a village pond.
