Flood-like situation in south Bengal districts ‘man-made’: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Several south Bengal districts are staring at a flood-like situation after the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) released around 2.5 lakh cusec of water on Wednesday – the highest since 2009.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited some of the areas such as Pursura and Khanakul in Hooghly, blamed DVC for the flood-like situation in the state, saying it was a man-made flood. She is likely to visit some more inundated areas such as Ghatal in West Midnapore on Thursday.
Two persons have died in East Burdwan and Hooghly in a case of wall collapse and electrocution respectively till Tuesday.
“This is a man-made flood. They planned to drown Bengal. I personally spoke to the DVC authorities. I spoke to Hemant Soren, chief minister of Jharkahnd at least thrice. The last time DVC released so much water was in 2009,” Banerjee told reporters in Hooghly.
According to data shared by DVC, around 2.5 lakh cusec water was released for around six hours on Tuesday. The last time such huge amount of water was released was in September 2009. DVC had then released 3,03,046 cusec from its Panchet and Maithon dams.
“We released 2.5 lakh cusecs for around six hours on Tuesday. West Bengal was informed. The flow of release was reduced to 1.2 lakh cusecs later during the day,” said a DVC official.
“We are apprehending a flood-like situation in some of the districts in the lower reaches of Damodar valley. There has been heavy rains and the DVC has been releasing huge amount of water from its Panchet dam on River Damodar and Maithon dam on River Barakar,” Alapan Bandyopadhyay, chief advisor to Mamata Banerjee, told media persons at the state secretariat on Tuesday evening.
A deep depression over the Gangetic West Bengal triggered heavy rains in south Bengal over the weekend and on Monday. The weather system moved to Jharkhand on Monday.
Several rivers such as Rupnarayan, Dwarakeshwar, Shilabati, Kaliaghai and Durbachati were flowing above extreme-danger mark while others such as Kangnasabti are flowing above the danger mark, officials said.
“Large areas in multiple districts across south Bengal are likely to get inundated. The state government has deputed 10 senior IAS officers who have been asked to visit the districts to monitor the situation,” said Bandyopadhyay.
The districts which have been affected are Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, West Burdwan and East Burdwan.
“A 24X7 control room has bene opened. Tarpaulines were being distributed. More than 180 relief camps have bene set up and around 8000 people have been shifted to the camps. At least 17 SDRF teams have bene deployed,” said an official.
“It was done to drown West Bengal. The Centre doesn’t undertake dredging. If dredging is done DVC cam hold more water. Why do they not release water gradually when the dam is 70% – 80% full? In a bid to save Jharkhand, they release the water to Bengal. How much deprivation we shall take?” Banerjee told reporters.
“Even the water level in the Adi Ganga has shot up. I have never so much water in Adi Ganga. DVC released huge amount of water. People have been requested to moved to flood shelters. A few people got trapped at Khanakul in Hooghly district,” she told reporters earlier.
The chief minister’s residence at Kalighat in south Kolkata is located on the banks of the Adi Ganga, the original channel of River Ganga passing through Kolkata.