malda: Amid uncontrollable erosion along the banks of Ganga in Manikchak and Kaliachak 3 blocks, Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury, South Malda MP, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and minister of Jalshakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to take urgent steps to stop erosion.
Thousands of families are on the verge of becoming homeless owing to continuing erosion along the banks of Ganga in both Manikchak and Kaliachak 3 blocks.
The MP wrote that a huge number of households and agricultural land in his constituency has been washed away due to erosion. Kesharpur, Kalutontola, Ratanpur, Sahabattola, Hukumattola, Elahitola in Manikchak and Parlalpur, Hossainpur, Birnagar in Kaliachak 3 have been worse affected by the erosion forcing hundreds of families to shift their residence to safer places. They have also lost their livelihoods.
Khan Chowdhury, Congress MP, said: “While being the minister of state in the Water Resources department in 2014, I
worked in Bhutni, Manikchak and Gopalpur with a fund of Rs 40 crore to check erosion on a permanent basis with boulders and there was no problem of erosion for a few years.
I shall go to the affected areas very soon to take stock of the situation. I have mailed to the PM explaining the situation and sought urgent action over this.”
For almost a month, erosion has been continuing and the affected people have repeatedly urged for a permanent solution but with no response from the government.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allotted a sum of Rs 50 crore for the works to stop erosion during her administrative meeting in May at the Malda College Auditorium under the English Bazar Police Station. Ganga being a national river, it is the Centre’s duty to address this issue, many have demanded.
The Ganga water level is near the danger level and the fear of the worst
still lurks on.