Villagers set to be rendered homeless owing to damage in Ganga embankment

malda: Embankments have been damaged since Wednesday night over an area of about 15 metres along river Ganga, in Gopalpur area, under the Manikchak police station. With this, the chances of North Hukumat Tola village in Gopalpur Gram Panchayat of Manikchak, being totally submerged by the river are very high. Villagers are now taking refuge in other places after dismantling their houses and carrying whatever they can.

Prior to this, the villagers had suffered the same fate and had shifted here and now, once again, these villagers are on the verge of becoming homeless. A political tug of war has already begun over the issue. Opposition parties have started to raise questions about the role of the irrigation department of the state government in preventing erosion. Sabina Yasmin, minister of state for irrigation has blamed the central government for this.

The affected villagers complained that the Ganga embankments erode in this part of the district every year but only patchwork is done with no permanent solution to the problem. They claim that they have already been rendered homeless three times.

The water level of Ganga at Manikchakghat was at 23.62 metres on Thursday morning at 8 am, just a metre less than the danger level. Sabina Yasmin said: “It is not possible for the state government alone to do this work. The Centre is aiming only at eating the icing on the cake without doing any work. BJP’s job is only to vilify.”

Terming the Ganga erosion a serious problem, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during an administrative meeting at the Malda College Auditorium on May 4, had sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the current year. The work is to be done in phases for the next 10 years. Gour Chandra Mandal, general secretary of BJP’s South Malda organisational district and a resident of Manikchak area said: “The present government has looted the land in the name of preventing erosion every year.”