Agriculture Min to visit areas facing heavy flooding

The state irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee directed the officials of his department to initiate essential rescue tasks on an immediate basis with water level in heavily inundated areas started dropping after rainfall stopped in the four affected districts of North Bengal.

Banerjee went to different parts of Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri on Thursday to take a stock of the situation. The state tourism minister Goutam Deb and forest minister Binay Krishna Burman too went to the visit along with the irrigation minister.

After visiting the areas, he said: “The essential tasks would be started as early as possible and rest of the work like repairing of embankments will be started within the next seven days. The 

work will be started soon after the plan is ready.”

Banerjee had visited different places in Siliguri and held an administrative meeting with senior officials on Wednesday night.

They had also visited the relief camps and spoke to the people who have taken shelter there. Many people were found returning to their homes leaving the relief camps. 

Water level in rivers including Tista, Dudusha, Jaldhaka and Corola has started going down. It has come as a respite for the people in the area as water from the villages and even in Jalpaiguri town has also started receding.

Purnendu Basu, the state agriculture minister, is scheduled to visit the affected areas in the first week of August. Basu on Thursday said that he will be visiting  the places to take a stock of the situation and to note  the loss farmers had incurred due to heavy inundation in the North Bengal districts. The state government will take the next course of action after visiting the place.

It is learnt that the agriculture department has already asked its district authorities to prepare a report in this regard.