"This is not a matter of today, this is happening for the last 50 years. Rats damage river embankments, which cause the floods. Rats are not the only factor behind this. This issue has been taking place since the time the Congress and Lalu Yadav's government were in power. They all are responsible for this," the Deputy Chief Minister said.
Earlier on Friday, Bihar Water Resource Minister Lalan Singh, after reviewing the flood situation, claimed that rats had damaged the river embankments that in turn caused the floods.
The Opposition parties did not approve of the statement and claimed that the Bihar government is only trying to hide its failure with such illogical statements.
As per reports, several big rivers such as Kamla Balan, Kosi, Gandak and Bagmati broke their mud embankments, displacing over 1.70 crore population and causing floods in half of the state.
Earlier, the Bihar Police had come under fire for arguing that the rodents had finished off hundreds of litres of alcohol that were seized from Bihar residents after the liquor ban.
It had only come to the fore when the media caught up with the police and discovered that the bottles were missing from police stores.
The floods have damaged 2,500 homes and claimed 514 lives.
