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Bengal

State govt sanctions Rs 24 cr to prevent soil erosion

The state government has sanctioned Rs 24 crore to prevent soil erosion in eight vulnerable areas in Murshidabad after the Centre refused to sanction funds for the construction and repairing of embankments.

This was decided at the administrative review meeting held in Murshidabad on Thursday. The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Basudeb Bandyopadhyay, Chief Secretary and Home Secretary Malay De were also present.

Ways and means to prevent erosion was one of the important issues discussed in the meeting.

Banerjee said: "The state government has been asking the Centre to allot Rs 700 crore to take up projects to check soil erosion in Murshidabad for the past 20 years. The matter has also been discussed during my recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I have requested him to release funds for the same."

She added: "The state government had already given a clearance for the Kandi Master Plan and now Rs 24 crore has been allotted to check soil erosion in 81 vulnerable areas in Murshidabad."

Soil erosion is a very serious problem in Murshidabad. At least 100 villages have been washed away by the river. Debobrata Bandyopadhyay, hailing from Murshidabad, was also the Irrigation minister in the Left Front government, tried to convince Jyoti Basu to take up the issue with the Centre to take proper measures to prevent soil erosion.

As a stop gap measure, the Left Front government had put boulders that finally did more harm than good. Nimtita Rajbari, where the shooting of Jalsaghar, directed by Satyajit Ray took place, has nearly been washed away by the river.

River Bhagirathi has changed its course over the years and every time the change took place it washed away innumerable number of villages causing mass-scale death and destruction.
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