Centre to allocate 60% of funds to state for projects under flood management
Kolkata: Accepting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's long-standing demand, the Narendra Modi government has decided to allocate 60 percent of funds to projects under the Flood Management & Border Area Programme to West Bengal to prevent the 'perpetual erosion' of River Hooghly in the state.
The state government has been asked to send the list of projects as per its priority. A senior official of Nabanna said Bengal intends to carry out four projects costing Rs 2,478 crore, including the Ghatal Master Plan, on a priority basis. "Since it is not possible for a state to bear the cost alone, we had demanded that the Centre provide 75 percent of the funds for the project with the remaining to be borne by the state," the official added.
Banerjee had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month highlighting the erosion of the river and flood control measures in the state's Malda and Nadia districts.
Banerjee had urged the Prime Minister to urgently look into the matter so that "flood management and restoration schemes can be carried out at the earliest to prevent the loss of lives and livelihood in case of any disaster."
"The severity of the problem of erosion along the river system in West Bengal can be appreciated from the fact that almost 2,800 hectares of fertile land has been engulfed by the river and there has been damage to public and private properties to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore during last 15 years," Banerjee's letter to the PM mentioned.
She also stated that the perpetual flood and erosion along the trans-boundary rivers like Mahananda, Fulhar, Tangon, Atrayee and Punarbhava have been a pressing concern for 21 blocks of three districts, namely Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda.
Of the four projects for which West Bengal has sought funds, the most important is the Rs 1,238-crore Ghatal Master Plan. The other projects include the pending work of Aila Dam in the Sunderbans worth Rs 1,000 crore, allocation of around Rs 80 crore for the Kandi Master Plan and some parts of the Keleghai-Kapeshwari project, which have been estimated at Rs 160 crore.
