Mausam Noor raises issue of Ganga erosion in Parliament

Malda: Mausam Noor, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP, on Wednesday raised the issue of Ganga erosion during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha. Jagdish Dhankhar, vice-president of India and the former Governor of Bengal, said that she has raised a good point. Noor did not forget to mention that the merger of Ganga and Fulhar rivers owing to erosion of the banks will cause extensive loss to human life, crops and land. Some other Rajya Sabha members supported Noor declaring that the inaction on the part of the Union government is ‘shameful.’

Noor during Zero hour scorned that Bengal has also been allotted zero in the Budget, tabled on Tuesday by Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance minister. She further added that there has been zero allocation to battle the floods in Malda.

“During monsoon, Malda witnesses major devastation caused by floods and erosion. This year, the situation is very alarming as the rivers have changed course with time and the distance between Ganga and Fulhar rivers has come down to only 700 meters from the earlier 8 km. If the rivers merge, there will be a huge disaster causing colossal damage.

A huge area will be engulfed by the rivers causing loss of land, farms and mango orchards rendering lakhs of people homeless,” said Noor.

She also mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been constantly pressing the Union Ministry of Water Resources and Farakka Barrage to conduct anti-erosion works and come up with a permanent solution to the problem. In 2022, Banerjee had written to the Union Ministry to restore the 120 km under the jurisdiction of the Farakka Barrage Protection Authority to prevent erosion.

“Earlier during the UPA regime, anti-erosion and bank protection works had been undertaken several times in the affected areas. Unfortunately since 2014, the Farakka Barrage has failed to address this grave problem and has not initiated any action,” stated the Rajya Sabha MP. Noor said that a permanent solution is the need of the hour. “If such a grave issue is not addressed immediately losses to lives, property and economy is inevitable,”

added Noor.