Mamata dials Jharkhand CM flagging dam water release issue

Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday morning spoke with her Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren over the telephone and informed him that the case of sudden and huge release of water from Tenughat has started flooding Bengal. She insisted this is a man-made disaster.

“Just now, I spoke to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren ji, and discussed with him the evolving flood situation. I discussed with him the case of sudden and huge release of water from Tenughat, which has already started flooding Bengal. I told him that Jharkhand waters have been flooding Bengal, and this is man-made! I requested him to please take care of this,” Banerjee wrote in her X handle.

Tenughat released 1 lakh 20000 cusec of water on Sunday early morning, Panchet released 1.14 lakh cusec and Maithon released 6000 cusec of water. Since water released from Panchet and Maithon accumulates in the Durgapur Barrage, the DVC was compelled to release 1 lakh 20000 cusec. Irrigation department sources said if the amount of water released does not increase then the situation will be under control and there would be no further inundation. The rainfall decrease in the south Bengal districts since Sunday afternoon has also improved the situation.

Banerjee, who has been monitoring the situation for the last few days, spoke to all the district magistrates (DMs) concerned in South Bengal as well as in North Bengal. “I have asked the DMs to be particularly vigilant and take proper care of the calamity situation in the next 3/4 days. I told them to take all precautionary measures so that there is no untoward incident anywhere,” Banerjee wrote on X. The weather office on

Sunday predicted less rainfall for south Bengal while heavy rainfall from North Bengal with the deep depression moving away from Bengal to the southern part of Uttar Pradesh close to Madhya Pradesh. “There will be light to medium rain in south Bengal on August 4 and 5. However, rainfall will increase during the period of 6-8 August. The western districts of south Bengal are expected to have heavy rainfall on 6 and 7 August. On August 6, there are chances of thundershower in all south Bengal districts,” an official in the weather office in Alipore said.

Kolkata too is expected to witness rainfall from August 6 to 8. Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar are expected to experience heavy rainfall from August 4-8, particularly on August 5 and 6 very heavy rainfall has been predicted in the five north Bengal districts.

The waterlogging situation due to heavy rainfall and DVC water release in parts of Howrah, Hooghly and East Burdwan improved. Some wards of Basirhat Municipality in North 24-Parganas and parts of Sagar Islands in South 24-Parganas are inundated due to heavy rainfall. Parts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Birbhum have also witnessed waterlogging due to breach of embankments in some of the river banks. However, prompt measures by the district administration led to improvement in the situation.