Kolkata: The Bengal Irrigation department demanded joint regulation of the Tenughat dam along with its
neighbouring state Jharkhand at the Eastern Zonal Council meeting held in New Delhi recently.
The issue related to coordination between the state and Jharkhand in connection with the use of water from Massanjore dam was also discussed at the meeting.
"We do not get any information about the release of water from the Tenughat dam. However, when a large volume of water is released from the dam it hits Panchet
dam in our state which gets overflowed and is compelled to release water resulting in flood-like situations in
areas like Khanakul in Hooghly, Udaynarayanpur in Howrah to name a few. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has time and again been vocal against indiscriminate water release from the Tenughat dam but the problem persists. So we have urged the Centre for jointly regulating the Tenughat dam to avert such flood-like situation in Bengal," a senior official of state Irrigation department said.
Principal Secretary of Irrigation department Prabhat Kumar Mishra and joint secretary Biplab Mukherjee were present at the meeting on behalf of Bengal.
Interestingly, this year there has been scanty rainfall and the issue of water release has not arisen but every year during the monsoon, some areas particularly, in Howrah and Hooghly district of Bengal face flood-like situations.
The state government had earlier also raised the issue of joint regulation of the
Tenughat dam but the Jharkhand government had opposed the same.
In the meeting, the state Irrigation department furnished detailed information to the Central Water Commission (CWC) related to the use of water from the Massanjore dam to rule out allegations of Jharkhand that the state has not allowed them proper utilisation of water from the dam.
The Jharkhand government plans to set up a dam at Belpahari (Jharkhand) whose catchment area will cover Bengal too. "We have asked for a proper hydraulic study related to the issue so that our state does not face any problem in connection with this dam," the official added.