PTI

New Delhi, Sep 4: Accusing the Bihar government of  failing to effectively manage flood relief and rescue operation, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad on Wednesday said this would  be made an election issue in the state.

Charging the JD U -BJP government in Bihar with  failing to rise to the occasion, Prasad said  the situation is  quite grim and the relief and rescue operation is not  progressing satisfactorily.

“We have sent 20 drinking  water tanker rakes to the  state but they are lying idle because the state government  does not know where to send them,” he said.

“Kosi will be an issue in the coming election and  people will decide who has done what,” Prasad told reporters  here and refuted allegations that he was trying to gain  political mileage out of the flood situation.

“The sheer devastation will not be forgotten by the people easily. The site of the skeletal remains will continue  to haunt the state government after the water recedes,” he said.

However  he said at this hour of crisis there should  not be any politics and  our priority should be rescue and  relief operations and nothing else.

Terming the Bihar flood as another tsunami, the  Railways Minister said an epidemic fear looms large over the  state.

“This is a tsunami and not flood. There is a strong  possibility of epidemic outbreak in the affected areas,” Said  Prasad who returned from the state on Tuesday.