Centre's apathy leads to erosion in 16 blocks in 3 districts, says min

kolkata: State Irrigation and Waterways department minister Saumen Mahapatra alleged apathy on the part of the centre in the maintenance of the Farakka barrage and attributed it to the massive erosion in 16 blocks in three districts of Bengal.

"30 lakh tonnes of silt gets accumulated every year in the channel of the Farakka barrage that was constructed in 1975. The centre was supposed to maintain 120 km- 80 km during low tide and 40 km during high tide to prevent siltation. Two years back it came as a bolt from the blue for us when the centre said that they would carry out maintenance of only 19.4 km of the channel. Some months back they totally washed their hands of the maintenance. Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written on more than one occasion to the Prime Minister regarding this but no positive response has been elicited, " Mahapatra said in response to a number of queries raised by MLAs over erosion related problems in the state Assembly on Tuesday.

According to the minister the 16 vulnerable blocks are Manikchak, Ratua I, Kaliachowk II, Kaliachowk III in Malda, Farakka, Samsherganj, Suti II, Suti I, Raghunathganj I, Lalgola, Bhagabangola I and II, Raninagar II, Jalangi and Dhulian Municipality area in Murshidabad district and Karimpur I block in Nadia.

The minister informed the House that 83 km of embankment that was damaged due to the severe cyclonic storm Amphan that had hit the state in May 2020 has been restored and another 0.7 km is being executed. The minister said that work has already started under the West Bengal Major Irrigation Flood Management project where World Bank funds of Rs 3035.5 crore is involved. The total project will be executed in six years in three phases.

The various works that would come under the project include strengthening of the river embankments stretching 97 km in the Lower Damodar basin. "Seventeen blocks in Howrah and Hooghly will be benefitted by this," the minister said.

"118 km of new embankments will be constructed in 42 blocks and 65 km of canal and narrow canals will be created for proper irrigation to agricultural land. Four districts in East Burdwan, West Burdwan, , Howrah and Hooghly districts covering 3.76 lakh hectares of agricultural land will be benefited from this project,"

said Mahapatra.