The BJP has slammed Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for using natural calamities to play “political games.” All by shifting its own responsibilities on the Centre for the recent floods that has inundated several districts of the State.

Days after the Chief Minister shot off two back-to-back letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that the Damodar Valley Corporation had released lakhs of cusecs of water without alerting her State administration sinking several districts and damaging properties and crops worth several thousand crores, Bengal BJP president Sukanto Majumdar said that Banerjee’s allegations were a ploy to release pressure from her Government by diverting public attention from the Kolkata lady doctor rape and murder issue.

“It is not only the DVC but also the dams run and controlled by her own Government that have released water contributing to the flood situation,” Majumdar said adding “the Chief Minister is falsely blaming the DVC which had already informed her Government several hours before releasing the water.

“DVC only released water from Panchet and Maithon dams in Jharkhand but here the Bengal Government released water from its own dams on rivers Subarnarekha, Kangshabati, Ajoy and Mayurakkhi … this was done to create a situation so as to divert the public attention from the rape and murder case” of a lady doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital which had put the State Government in a tight spot.

The BJP’s statements came at a time when the flood situation in south Bengal districts continued to be grim with the Damodar Valley Corporation releasing additional 25 thousand cusecs of water on Friday taking the total amount of water released over the past two days to about 35,000 cusecs, sources said.

Earlier the DVC had released about 5 lakh cusecs of water inundating about districts of Hooghly, Howrah, two Mdinapores, Bankura, Birbhum and parts of Burdwan leading the Chief Minister to write two consecutive letters to the Prime Minister seeking relief funds.

Fresh bouts of rains over the past few days have led to the situation, sources in the administration said.  “The water had just started to recede in Ghatal and Panshkura sub divisions of West Midnapore and Hooghly districts which had remained most affected areas but fresh rains in the past two days have only compounded the problem,” said an Irrigation Department official.

Quoting t he DVC sources the BJP leadership said how the authorities had released water from Maithon Dam when it was almost 489.50 feet full. “The total capacity of the dam is 490 feet … the dam was brimming over … it is a hilly zone and if the dam would have burst then not only the other districts but also Kolkata would have been washed away,” said sources adding how the Bengal Government had been kept posted about the developments through the State’s representatives.