Floodwater in Bihar jail, inmates moved

BHAGALPUR: A rampaging Ganga breached its banks and floodwater entered the Naugacchia prison, endangering the lives of 230 inmates who were then shifted out, the Bhagalpur district administration said on Sunday.

Naugacchia, a subdivision of Bhagalpur district, some 50km east of Khagaria, in Bihar has always been flood-prone, nestled as it is between the Ganga, its Burhi Gandak tributary and the Kosi. Prison staff hired boats and vehicles to shift the inmates to the Jubba Sahni central prison facility in Bhagalpur, officials said.

The subdivisional town, situated in a trough to the north of the highway connecting it with Assam that also acts as a second protective embankment, has been threatened as Burhi Gandak and Kosi waters are spilling over as they cannot enter the swollen Ganga mainstream.

Bhagalpur central jail superintendent Niraj Kumar Jha confirmed that more than 200 prisoners were being shifted in the light of the flood situation in Naugacchia.