Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said that she spoke to her Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren and requested him to look into the issue of release of water from dams in the neighbouring state.
Banerjee claimed that the release of water from Jharkhand was causing a man-man flood-like situation in West Bengal. The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), which operates several hydropower projects in Jharkhand and West Bengal, however, said that water discharge was expected to reduce due to a dip in rainfall. DVC also said it does not foresee any major flood threat downstream as of now.
"I spoke to the chief minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren ji, and discussed with him the evolving flood situation. I discussed with him the case of sudden and huge release of water from Tenughat, which has already started flooding West Bengal," Banerjee posted on X. "I told him that Jharkhand waters have been flooding West Bengal, and this is man-made! I requested him to please take care of this," she added.
The West Bengal chief minister also said that she is monitoring the situation and speaking to senior officials in the districts and issuing necessary instructions. "I have, meanwhile, been monitoring the situation and have spoken to all the DMs concerned in south Bengal as well as in north Bengal. I have asked the DMs to be particularly vigilant and take proper care of the calamity situation in the next 3-4 days. I told them to take all precautionary measures so that there is no untoward incident anywhere," she added.
The DVC, on the other hand, said discharge of water from Tenughat in Jharkhand is expected to reduce due to a dip in rainfall. The DVC released 1.2 lakh cusecs of water from Panchet and Maithon dams along the Jharkhand-West Bengal border on Sunday morning after heavy discharge of water from Tenughat upstream. A total of 90,000 cusecs were released from Panchet and Maithon on Saturday.