Guest blog by Dr Dinesh Kumar Mishra[i] (dkmishra108@gmail.com)

I was recently trying to look into the flood history of Bihar’s post-independence period and came across this interesting article by Hari Nath Mishra written in 1950 but published on September 3, 1967 in The Searchlight – Patna. Hari Nath Mishra later became the Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, Health Minister in Bihar and also was the Central Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Power later when Dr. K.L. Rao was the Irrigation Minister at the Centre. I was lucky to have met him in 1986 when he talked about the problems ailing the Kosi Project and that the ambitions of the people were not met as the embankments constructed along the river did not serve the purpose that they were expected to. Irrigation from the project was far below the targets fixed by the Project Engineers, power production was abysmally poor and the rehabilitation of the embankment victims was in deplorable state. I quote the article verbatim here and try to give some more to it during subsequent period. Continue reading “Reflections on the Origin of the Kosi Project” →