Floods in parts of Bengal ‘man-made’ crisis: Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the Centre on Wednesday for the flood-like situation in some parts of South Bengal and said that the “man-made” crisis occurred due to relentless “non-cooperation” and “indifference” by the Union government.

A 10-year-old child died due to the flood situation in West Midnapore’s Keshpur.

Banerjee visited some of the inundated pockets at Pursurah block in Hooghly earlier in the day and held the Centre-run Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for the flood situation due to the release of huge quantities of water from its dams in one go.

“This is a man-made flood. They planned to drown Bengal. I personally spoke to the DVC authorities. I spoke to Hemant Soren, Chief Minister of Jharkahnd at least thrice. The last time DVC released so much water was in 2009,” Banerjee told reporters in Hooghly.

“The DVC released over 3.5 lakh cusecs of water in one go this time, the highest ever. Why don’t DVC authorities start releasing water gradually when around 80 per cent of their barrages are filled up? The Union government is trying to save the states ruled by the ruling party at the Centre, as a result of which the people of Bengal are suffering,” the Chief Minister said.

She visited several affected areas, including Hooghly’s Pursurah, Goghat, Arambagh and West Midnapore’s Ghatal on Wednesday. She spoke to the people in the affected areas as well. She is slated to visit other flood-affected districts during the next couple of days.

“Only to save their states, they are releasing huge amounts of water which is causing a flood-like situation in Bengal,” Banerjee said.

Later in the day, Banerjee in a post on X said: “I have supervised the flood like situation in several parts of Hooghly and in West Midnapore’s Ghatal. Tomorrow, I will be visiting Panskura in East Midnapore. The state government is ready to extend all possible help to the affected people. I have given necessary instructions to the administration.”

Certain pockets in the districts of Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore and West Midnapore had been flooded following the release of water by DVC. Amta and Udaynarayanpur in Howrah, Pursura in Hooghly, Ghatal in West Midnapore and Panskura in East Midnapore are among the worst-affected blocks. At Panskura, which had already been witnessing heavy rainfall during the last few days, the situation worsened from early Wednesday morning following the release of water from the Kansavati Dam.

A 10-year-old child died due to flood situation in Keshpur in West Midnapore. A portion of a house in Daspur collapsed and fell into the flood water. Several parts of Ghatal, Chandrakona, Daspur in the same district were affected. Chief Minister Banerjee spoke to the Superintendent of Police and District Magistrate of West Midnapore while visiting the district on Wednesday. Two casualties had earlier been reported from September 16-17.The Karnavati embankment collapsed at the Jarda area of Panskura around 4 am on Wednesday, which led to the disaster.Meanwhile, the situation has also started deteriorating in Bankura following unrelenting rain during the last few days. Bankura has witnessed 1,123 mm of rainfall since June 1, which, according to the records, is 200 mm above average.According to data shared by DVC, around 2.5 lakh cusec water was released for around six hours on Tuesday. The last time such a huge amount of water was released was in September 2009. DVC had then released 3,03,046 cusec from its Panchet and Maithon dams.“We released 2.5 lakh cusecs for around six hours on Tuesday. West Bengal was informed. The flow of release was reduced to 1.2 lakh cusecs later during the day,” said a DVC official.The ruling Trinamool Congress in a post on X said: “Didi stands with people! Smt. @MamataOfficial reached out to the flood-affected areas to oversee relief work. GoWB stands to ensure the safety of the people!”

Tarakeswar MLA of Trinamool Congress Ramendu Sinharay, was found actively overseeing relief operations in the flood-ravaged areas. “With Smt. @MamataOfficial leading the way, efforts to bring relief and rebuild are in full force. A prime example of hands-on, people-first governance!” Trinamool added. Many of the ruling party MLAs also supervised the flood situation and interacted with the local people.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already given necessary instructions to Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to combat the situation and 10 senior officials on the ranks of principal secretaries/secretaries of various departments have been sent to various south Bengal districts to assess the situation.