Centre and state trade blame over floods The swollen Kosi river breached its banks in upstream Nepal and brought grief to north Bihar. By government count, 90 people died in the floods, but unofficial reports put the toll at more than 1,000. More than three lakh people were marooned. Even as the government air-dropped food packets, some desperate villagers raided a food store. Many villagers refused to move to safer places fearing their homes might be looted. And as floodwaters began to recede, there were fears of an epidemic outbreak. Initially, the breach was just a few hundred metres along the river's embankment. Left unattended. it became a kilometre wide. The Centre blamed the state government for not giving estimates of dam repairs on the Nepal side of the river. Union Minister of State for Water Resources Jaiprakash Yadav said a state government report of August 17 had stated that all embankments were safe, but the next day the Centre learnt of erosions at the Kosi dam in upper Nepal. "We had sanctioned about Rs 80 lakh for repairs of the embankment," he said. Besides, he said, Ganga Flood Control Commission director S.S. Chaudhary had written to the Bihar Water Resource Department on April 1, asking about the progress of flood protection works being done on the Kosi as per the recommendations of the Kosi high-level committee. Bihar Minister for Water Resources Vijendra Prasad Yadav said the state government had completed the work on the embankment by June 15. He said the state government was only the executing agency in the India-Nepal agreement that brought the Kosi barrage He accused the Centre, which had over all responsibility for maintenance of the embankment, of ignoring the state's requests for major repairs on the structure. He said satellite images showed that a landslide in the river's catchment area drove the currents to hit the embankment. "In 2007, we sent a proposal for de-silting the rivers flowing through Bihar. But the Centre rejected it," he said. Former state water resources minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Jagdanand Singh accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of criminal lapse. "The chief minister may land in jail if the next government in Bihar orders an inquiry into the criminal acts on his part that led to the catastrophic floods," he said. Successive state governments-including those of RJD leaders Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi