Centre to investigate North Bengal flood link with Bhutan

Kolkata: After Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently alleged that water flowing down from neighbouring Bhutan caused floods in north Bengal, the Centre would look into the issue, sources said.

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, on Thursday stated that they would look into the matter after the Bengal Chief Minister had brought the charges that water from Bhutan caused flooding in north Bengal.

The Bengal Chief Minister recently sought compensation from Bhutan. Speaking in Nagrakata in the Jalpaiguri district of Bengal, the Chief Minister recently said that the losses occurred owing to rainwater flowing down from Bhutan through various rivers.

Incidentally, the Bengal government, led by Chief Minister Banerjee, insisted on the formation of the Indo-Bhutan Joint River Commission. State government officials met their counterparts in the Union government in Delhi, pressing their demand for the formation of the Indo-Bhutan river commission. But the Centre has not yet taken any steps in this regard.

“I have been insisting on setting up an Indo-Bhutan Joint River Commission for some time now, and I demand that West Bengal be made part of it,” Banerjee had stated earlier.

The Trinamool Congress government has accused the Centre of ignoring repeated calls to set up an Indo-Bhutan River Commission (IBRC). The party claimed that much of the flooding could have been prevented had the commission been in place to regulate transboundary rivers flowing from Bhutan and Sikkim into Bengal.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee, who had raised the issue in Parliament earlier, reportedly said he was told in writing by Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil that there was no plan to form such a commission.