Rejecting RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s charge of mismanaging the flood situation, Nitish Kumar told the PM that the maintenance of the Kosi embankment was the job of the Ganga Flood Control Commission, set up in 1972, under the Ministry of Water Resources at the Centre.

The chairman of GFCC is also the head of the Kosi High Level Committee. Sources said that Nitish Kumar told Singh that Bihar was only the implementing agency because the Kosi water was a subject of the Indo-Nepal treaty.

There is worry that the Kosi will swell even more by the first week of October. And with repair work possible only in October at Kushaha in Nepal, the place where the breach occurred, the threat levels will only rise. An estimated Rs 950 crore will be required to plug the breach and repair the Kosi embankment.