Patna: Villagers in Bihar have decided not to cook food during the day, after an alarming rise in incidents of fires, which have destroyed thousands of homes and killed dozens of people in the past fortnight.
Poor villagers from dozens of villages in West Champaran district agreed not to cook during the day at a meeting held yesterday as a preventive measure to save their huts from being gutted.
The meeting also decided to impose a fine of Rs1,000 (Dh55) on the defaulters, besides parading them with a garland of shoes around the village.
To ensure everyone is well aware of the decision, the villagers are being informed at the beat of drums and by knocking on everybody’s doors. The villagers are being strictly warned against lighting stoves during daylight hour. Rather they are advised to cook food before 8am.
In view of the order, most of the villagers are learnt to be going without freshly-cooked food in the day and surviving on fried grains. They are also being monitored by a village vigilante committee.
Fire incidents have assumed alarming proportions this summer, with more than 20,000 houses being reduced to ashes in fired which also claimed dozens of lives.
Alarmed at the prevailing situation, the state government has directed the officials to prepare rush relief to the victims.
The direction comes after the Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad urged the state government to take prompt actions in this regard.
However, the opposition has hit out at the government for gross negligence towards the plight of the poor.
“More than 50 lives have been perished and over 25,000 houses reduced to ashes in the ongoing fire incidents in the state but the chief minister Nitish Kumar is only busy in politics,” alleged Bhartiya Janata Party president Mangal Pandey.
