On Tuesday morning, Banerjee will inaugurate the Trinamool Congress (TMC) office in Parliament and in the evening she will launch the “Biswa Bangla” stall at A-2, State Emporia Complex at Baba Kharak Singh Marg. She would also meet President Pranab Mukherjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Banerjee’s visit comes in the wake of the Centre clearing phase-II of the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project in which Rs 2361.35 crore of World Bank assistance would be shared among six states, including Bengal. The project covers cyclone forecasting, warning systems, cyclone risk mitigation and capacity building in multi-hazard risk management.
So far, Bengal has not received any interim assistance from the Centre. Party sources said she would raise the demand for Rs 4,500 crore, which the Centre had held back in the Backward Region Grant Funds. “Of the Rs 7,500 crore allocated, the state has got Rs 3,000 crore,” a source confirmed.
In the wake of deteriorating flood situation in West Bengal, Banerjee had announced that she would meet the PM to seek central fund for the flood-ravaged state. She is expected to go back to her state on August 13 to monitor the rescue and relief operations.
“I will discuss grant of central disaster management fund for the purpose of flood relief in the state. I have already said in detail about my meeting with the PM. I have nothing more to add,” she said in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi.
Trinamool Congress supremo would also take up with the PM the issue of excessive water released by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), which added more woes to the affected people at several districts like West Midnapore, Birbhum, Hooghly, Murshidabad and Burdwan.
Last week, Banerjee also complained to Union Power Minister Piyush Goel that the situation in Bengal became worse due to DVC’s indiscriminate water release. She also <g data-gr-id="32">demanded for</g> immediate up-gradation of DVC in terms of technology and also suggested that they should conduct proper dredging of its dams and barrages to prevent such water release.
According to the state secretariat, 61 lakh people across 53 municipalities and 16,300 villages across 12 districts have been affected by the flood, which claimed nearly 80 lives.
More than seven lakh hectares of agricultural land had been inundated. So far, the Bengal government has announced compensation of Rs 4,00,000 to the families of the deceased and Rs 2,00,000 to those who were severely injured.
Apart from this, a onetime compensation of Rs 12,000 will be provided to those who were hospitalised for more than seven days, and Rs 4,000 for those hospitalised for less than seven days.