Kolkata: Expressing her concern over the "perpetual river erosion" along the river Ganga-Padma in Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia districts of Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to seriously look into the matter so that flood management and restoration schemes can be carried out in earnest to save loss of lives and livelihood from disaster.
Stating that the problem of erosion is resulting in "severe loss of public utilities, private properties and agricultural lands", Banerjee wrote: "The problem is continuing for over the last two decades. Such erosion along the river bank has largely been caused by the siltation in the river bed and frequent shifting of river course consequent upon the construction of Farakka Barrage."
She reiterated that it was becoming difficult for the state government to arrange funds required for the new protection works. "The matter was raised during the visit of the delegation of the Council of Ministers from the state to the Union minister of Jal Shakti on August 31, 2021. Again, no response has been received from the Central government," she stated, adding that the severity of the problem of erosion along this river system in Bengal can be appreciated from the fact that almost 2,800 hectares of fertile land has been engulfed by the river and there have been damages to the public and private properties to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore during last 15 years.
The Chief Minister further asked PM Modi for restoration of extended jurisdiction of Farakka Barrage Project Authority (FBPA), a subordinate office under the Jal Shakti Ministry, to 120 km so that the Centre can take up urgent bank protection schemes in the entire stretch in consultation with the state government as promised. Accusing the FBPA of not addressing the problem adequately, she maintained that it has "further aggravated the land loss due to river erosion over 400 square km of 15 blocks of Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia districts in West Bengal".
"As FBPA did not take up any substantial work, the state government had to take up urgent bank protection works at 31 identified vulnerable locations during last four years at a total cost of Rs 168.47 crore as a part of its commitment to protect thousands of flood victims in Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia districts," wrote the Chief Minister.
"Again, due to the monsoon of 2021, further anti-erosion works along the river Ganga-Padma for a length of 9.9 km has recently been taken up at a cost of Rs 80.67 crore. However, this is not going to suffice. As per the latest assessment, 37 locations along the river Ganga-Padma for a length of 28.8 km are vulnerable and require immediate attention. The concomitant expenditure for the river bank protection would be to the tune of Rs 571 crore," she added.
According to Banerjee, the erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources, in the year 2005, extended the work jurisdiction of the FBPA from 40 km upstream of the barrage to further 80 km downstream for the purpose of undertaking anti-erosion and riverbank protection works in the entire stretch. "Very surprisingly, the Union ministry of Water Resources, by their letter dated July 11, 2017, unilaterally withdrew their earlier decision of 2005 and restored the original jurisdiction of the FBPA from 11.5 km upstream to 5.9 km downstream of Farakka Barrage," she said.
Banerjee on August 10, 2017, had written for restoring the extended jurisdiction of 120 km by rescinding the aforesaid decision. However, there was no response.
She requested PM Modi to kindly reconsider the decision of withdrawal of the extended jurisdiction of FBPA and fulfil the earlier commitment of the Central government.
Banerjee has also stated that the perpetual flood and erosion along the transboundary 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.