Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the flood-like situation in some parts of the state was "man-made" due to the unbridled release of water by DVC from its dams in Maithon and Panchet.
Banerjee, who is visiting the affected areas in Hooghly district, told reporters that DVC has released 3.5 lakh cusecs of water which has led to this situation. "This kind of water discharge had never happened before. DVC has released 3.5 lakh cusecs of water. I have talked with the DVC officials and the Jharkhand chief minister. But of no avail", she said.
The Centre does not dredge the DVC dams. Had these dams been dredged, another additional two lakh cusecs of water could have been stored, she said. This action of releasing water is "pre-meditated and done to put West Bengal into trouble", she said. Several parts of the state in Hooghly and Paschim Medinipur districts have been inundated and the chief minister is visiting these areas.
Parts of Birbhum, Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas, Purba and Paschim Medinipur, and Paschim Bardhaman districts are inundated, according to Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) reduced releasing water from its barrages which has led to a flood-like situation in several southern districts of West Bengal, an official said on Wednesday.
The situation is likely to worsen in the next 2-3 days as the water released over the past two days is now reaching some of the already affected districts. "The DVC released 2.1 lakh cusec of water last night. However, since this morning, there has been a gradual reduction, as the rainfall has stopped in the upper catchment areas. At 8:30 am on Wednesday, the release rate was 1.7 lakh cusec, which further decreased to 1.4 lakh cusec by 10:45 am from the Panchet and Maithon dams," DVC Maithon Chief Engineer Anjani K Dubey said.
"The situation will remain grim, and the condition will worsen over the next two days before we see improvement. The water released over the last two days is now reaching Medinipur, Hooghly, and Howrah," an irrigation official said.
Water released from Maithon Dam reaches Durgapur Barrage in 10 hours and takes about 59 hours to reach Amta in Howrah. Two persons have died so far in the flood-like situation, Bandyopadhyay told reporters on Tuesday. Bandyopadhyay had said disaster relief teams are working in affected areas. The state government said it is closely monitoring the situation and has already relocated 25,000 people to safer places. Local MLAs and officials have visited their respective areas to monitor the situation and listen to residents' demands.
People in the Debra constituency of Paschim Medinipur protested before MLA Humayun Kabir after a river embankment was washed away. "The people have rightfully protested, as the river embankment, which was under repair, could not be completed. We are moving people to relief centres, monitoring the situation, and will provide all necessary support," Kabir told reporters.
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