Two days after writing a protest letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the Central Government-run Damodar Valley Corporation’s alleged “reckless release” of 5 lakh cusecs of water from its dams in Jharkhand causing “massive man made floods” in southern districts of Bengal, State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote a second letter to him explaining how the DVC had released water without consulting her Government.
To register its protest against the DVC’s “reckless act” Bengal which too is a member of theDVC withdrew its representative from its board making State Power Secretary Shantanu Basuand another Chief Executive Engineer on Sunday to resign from the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC). Hours before Banerjee had threatened to snap her Government’s ties with the DVC.
Referring to a reply letter from the Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil in which he reportedly said that the State level officials were informed by the DVC authorities about the release of water, Banerjee on Sunday wrote, “all the critical decisions are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India
without arriving at a consensus,” contrary to the claims made by the Union Minister that “release (of water) from DVC dams was carried out by consensus and collaboration with the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee, including consultations with representatives of the government of West Bengal.”
Banerjee told the media how Bengal was informed only little more than three hours before the release of water.
“They released more than 2.5 lakh cusecs of water” and overall more than 5 lakh cusecs of water released causing it the worst flood” in the southern districts of Bengal since 2009, she said.
“Peak release from the reservoirs lasting for a prolonged period of nine hours were conducted with only 3.5 hours notice which proved insufficient for effective disaster management,” she wrote.
Four major barrages including those at Panchet, Maithon, Konar and Tilaya are operated by the DVC. Apart from this Durgapur barrage and the canal networks which were originally part of the DVC were handed over to the Bengal Government in 1964. It remains as a part of the total
system of water management. There are many minor dams also operated by the two States in Bengal and Jharkhand.
“They are telling that they wanted to save Jharkhand from floods … I have no problem in that … I too want the people of other States to be saved but why should the people of Bengal suffer for others … it is the duty of the DVC to see the interests of the people of Bengal too,” Banerjee told reporters.
In his previous letter to the Prime Minister she had said how 5 million people in the state were affected by the floods,” requesting him to “immediately sanction and release central funds to address the widespread devastation.”
However in his reply letter, Paatil wrote that the whole affair is managed by the DVRRC, which had representatives from the Central Water Commission, Bengal, Jharkhand, and the DVC.
Meanwhile, the flood situation continued to remain grim in large parts of southern Bengal with several blocks of Hooghly, Howrah, East and West Midnapore districts remaining inundated often under neck-deep or even more water.
Not only the villages but urban areas had also been largely affected with the towns like Ghatal, Panshkura, Purushura remaining under water for the past more than 60 hours or so.
