River erosion: Centre hasn’t given a single penny, says Hakim

Kolkata: Mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday said that the Centre has not provided a single penny for addressing the issue of river erosion inspite of assurance to do so.

“Some of the water projects, particularly one at Dhulian in Murshidabad, are on the verge of getting devoured by the erosion of River Ganga.

In Kolkata, the river is approaching the city while on the opposite side at Howrah, it is retreating. As a preventive measure, we have taken up sheet piling in the Palta Waterworks project that was under threat of soil erosion. Now the Palta project has been protected. But the Centre has not released a single penny to tackle the river erosion issue similar to what they have done by depriving Bengal of funds for wages of 100 days workers," Hakim said.

Palta Waterworks supplies filtered water to more than six million people in the city.

The Mayor said that the state government is leaving no stone unturned to address the issue and is spending state funds to the best extent possible to address the

erosion issue.

Hakim said that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has taken up renovation of several ghats in the city.

“We want to carry out jointly with the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port authorities for this renovation work as they have expertise in this sort of work,” Mayor of Kolkata

Firhad Hakim added.