Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday launched fresh attacks on the Centre for causing a “man-made-flood” in southern districts of the State soon after the centrally-run Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) released 4.25 lakh cusecs of water in two consecutive days from the five barrages of Jharkhand and Bengal.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government was not informed about the DVC’s decision to release water in two phases. While 2.75 lakh cusec was released on Thursday, 1.5 lakh cusec was released on Friday Bengal government sources said adding the heavy and sudden release of water would inundate the catchment areas of River Damodar, its tributaries and other rivers.
Five columns of Army personnel and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Hooghly and Asansol to rescue people trapped in flooded areas.“The DVC released water from Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand without informing us … The release of water without information is crime … this is a man-made-flood as a result of which large parts of the southern districts will be inundated,” Banerjee said adding she would personally conduct an aerial survey of the flooded areas.
While the DVC said that it had no option but to release water after heavy rains in the hills of Jharkhand, the Chief Minister attacked the Centre saying “they (New Delhi) are doing injustice to West Bengal… still we are with our people and will do everything to save their lives and property.”
A large part of Bankura, Asansol, Birbhum, Hooghly has been flooded following heavy rain and release of water from reservoirs. Five people including a child have perished in the past two days due to flooding, sources said.
Attacking the Centre for “using public money for useless projects … but dredging the DVC reservoirs in the recent years,” Banerjee said “it is their sheer negligence which is why Bengal is suffering had the dredging work been done, the capacity of the reservoirs would have been more and release of water might not have been required.”
The State BJP however strongly refuted the Chief Minister’s accusations saying the DVC had already informed the State Government about its plans. “The State was informed two days ago … that is the protocol … how can it be that it was not informed … Mamata Banerjee is always playing the same card to shift her own blame on the Centre,” said Bengal BJP president Sukanto Majumdar.