'Till now there is no threat from the heavy discharge into the Kosi river,' Yadav told IANS here.

A day after the water level suddenly increased in the river, the fear of floods is haunting thousands of people in Supaul, Madhepura, Purnea, Saharsa and Araria districts.

'It has created panic among the people who witnessed last year's floods,' said Kamdeo Mandal, a farmer in Saharsa.

'The fear of floods like last year is giving us sleepless nights,' said Munna Singh, a resident of Madhepura town, one of the worst hit by floods last year.

But Yadav stressed that the eastern Kosi embankment, which had breached Aug 18 last year, 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 likely to be threatened by floods.

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.