'Rats have caused the Bihar floods', claims state's Water Resources Minister

The Bihar rats who had hit the headlines in May for their commendable capability to guzzle nine lakh litres of confiscated liquor are back in the news. However, this time they are reportedly responsible for causing the devastating floods that have killed more than 510 people in the state this year.

Bihar Floods: Death toll crosses 250, over 1.2 lakh people affected

Bihar Water Resources Department (WRD) minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh in a review of the floods blamed the rodents for corroding the river embankments, thus leading to floods in 19 districts of the state.

"Seepage from the Kamlabalan river through the embankments, which led to flooding of large areas and breaching of the embankments, was caused by rats. Rats are the main reason behind the floods in the state," Singh was quoted as saying by the New Indian Express.

He has also accused the rats of feasting on the grains stored along the river banks

"People living close to the embankments store their grains on the embankments, which draws a large number of the rats. These animals then make holes in the embankments, weakening the structures and ultimately causing floods," Singh added.

But Singh is not the only political leader who have levelled accusations against these rodents.

Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Bihar's minor irrigation and disaster management minister have also accused rats for the floods, which have affected over 1.70 crore people in the state in the last two weeks

"Rats play a major role in weakening the embankments. They are certainly a reason for the floods. There seems to be no solution for rats and mosquitoes," Dinesh stated.

Blame game begins

The theories of rats being responsible for the floods have brought a flood of criticism against the two JD(U) leaders, Singh and Dinesh.

RJD legislator Shakti Singh Yadav have blamed the water resource departments of being corrupt.

"Sometimes the rat is drinking liquor. On other instances, it is making holes in the embankments... these are only excuses. There is a lot of corruption in the water resources departments. What type of flood preparedness had they done by spending so much money?" said Shakti.

Another, RJD leader, Abdul Bari Siddiqui has also rubbished the statements made by Singh and Dinesh, reported NIE.

"Rats are drinking thousands of litres of alcohol. Rats are eating up hundreds of quintals of grains in godowns. Now rats are also causing floods. So, since rats are so powerful, why are they (government) not making space for these rodent to occupy the seat of power?" questioned Siddiqui, the former finance minister of Bihar.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav also took to Twitter to criticise the CM Nitish Kumar's government.

Even BJP MLA Mithilesh Tiwari has dismissed the role of rats in the floods

"In the Assembly, when questions were asked about the embankments, the minister had said that they are safe and strong. So how was such a massive flood caused? Blaming rats would not help any more. Accountability must be fixed", said Tiwari.