As people across India are waiting for the monsoon to get some relief from heat waves, a village in Bihar’s Siwan district on Thursday was inundated when a canal embankment collapsed and officials blamed rats for the incident.
The incident occurred at Khaspur village under Naviganj police station in the district.
When villagers investigated the matter, they saw the water was flowing out of the Gandak canal as some parts of its embankment had collapsed. When the matter reached the Water Resources Development Department, officials, instead of taking the responsibility for ill maintenance, blamed rats for “nibbling away” the embankment.
“We have learnt that an embankment collapsed at Khaspur village. During investigation, it appeared that rats or foxes may have nibbled the clay underneath the embankment. We are putting clay in the affected area. Repair process is on,” Gandak Canal Project SDO Brajesh Kumar Singh said.
He said that water entered into the agricultural field and the villagers are safe.
Rats are blamed for a range of incidents, spanning erosion or collapse of embankments to pilferage of liquor, and even theft.
When liquor was banned in 2016-17, around 10,000 litres of seized liquor in Malkhanas of Patna and Kaimur was found missing and the SPs of the districts blamed rats for consuming the liquor.
In March 2019, a diamond was found missing from a jewellery shop in Boring Road, Patna. When a police team scanned the CCTV cameras in the shop, it appeared that rats were instrumental behind taking off the diamond worth Rs 21,000.
In July 2022, an embankment of the Gandal canal was damaged in Vaishali, and officials then too blamed rats for it.
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