PATNA - The fear of a repeat of last year’s devastating floods is haunting thousands of people in Bihar following a record water discharge into the Kosi river from Nepal that is posing a threat to its embankment, officials said Wednesday.

In view of the panic among people in Supaul, Madhepura, Purnea, Saharsa and Araria districts, the state government has alerted engineers associated with the Kosi embankment and asked them to keep a close watch round-the-clock, an official of the water resources department said.

All engineers have been directed to be ready with necessary equipment and boulders to face any situation to protect the embankment, an engineer posted in Supaul told IANS over phone.

After heavy rains in Nepal in the last three days, the discharge of water into the Kosi river was recorded at 1.64 cusecs till late Tuesday night. It is said to be a record discharge into the river this year.

However, Bihar Water Resources Development Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told IANS here that the Kosi embankment was safe and there was no need to panic.

Heavy discharge into the Kosi river is not threatening the embankment, it is only a rumour, Yadav said.

He stressed that the eastern Kosi embankment, which had breached Aug 18 last year, flooding five districts of northern Bihar, was totally safe.

The embankment was strengthened and breach repair work was completed, he said.

But reports reaching here said that hundreds of people, fearing a repeat of last year’s floods, are fleeing from villages in Supaul district.

Last year, more than three million people were rendered homeless in Bihar when the Kosi river breached its bank upstream in Nepal and changed course Aug 18. Large tracts of land were flooded, forcing people to flee their homes.

Hundreds and thousands of people were affected in the floods that were said to be the worst in Bihar in the last 50 years. People were forced to live along roads under the open sky without food and drinking water or in relief camps set up by the state government.