Kolkata: The state Irrigation and Waterways department has identified close to 70 spots mainly in south Bengal districts where embankments were damaged due to high tide. At the same time immediate steps have been taken to carry out the immediate task possible so that residents of the areas do not incur much loss.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also expressed her concern over the situation as there was incessant rainfall for the past few days leading to almost overflowing of rivers at different places in the state. She even stated about damages caused to embankments at various places mainly South 24-Parganas. According to a senior official of the department, there are around 27 spots at Sagar where river embankments were badly damaged due to the high tide. Similarly, there are around 20 such spots at Patharpratima and 10 at Kakdwip.
The high tide has also damaged embankments at Digha and Shankarpur as heavy waves lashed the sea shore. There are around five such spots at Shankarpur where embankments were damaged. There are some parts of Howrah, Hooghly and Malda as well from where reports of damage of embankments were received by the authorities. This comes when there is 11.5 km long permanent embankment from Tajpur to Shankarpur while work for construction of another 2.5 km that is from Shankarpur to Digha is also going on in full swing. Senior officials and engineers of the department went to the spot and work has been started so that necessary work to protect the area can be done before the next high tide, that is known as "bhora kotal" in common parlance, hit the areas after 15 days. Moreover, the immediate work will help in checking the water from entering the villages.
Meanwhile, there was heavy inundation of water at villages including Boramara, Simana, Hazrakundu at Ghatal's
Daspur I block in West Midnapore as a portion of river embankment was damaged due to high tide. Agricultural land and roads in the area went under water.
Necessary assistance has been provided to the people in the area and engineers of the state Irrigation department along with district officials are taking necessary steps to check further loss in the area.