State govt implements 'Ghatal Master Plan'
Kolkata: With the Centre yet to give a single penny for Ghatal Master Plan despite giving necessary administrative clearances, the Mamata Banerjee government itself is implementing the same in phases to give respite to 20 lakh residents of a vast area of East and West Midnapore districts from flood.
The state Irrigation and Waterways department is soon going to take up the major desiltation work in New
Koshi river and Khiraiboksi river that is a part of the Ghatal Master Plan.
This comes when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently said in the administrative review meeting in West Midnapore that despite all financial constraints the state government will leave no stones unturned in executing the same in phases.
According to a senior official of the state Irrigation and Waterways department, the work of dredging in two rivers in Midnapore — New Koshi and Khiraiboksi — will be taken up. "All necessary processes including the tender process in this regard has been undertaken and the work will be initiated as early as possible so that people in the area do not have to face the trouble due to flood in the next monsoon," the official said. Dredging, that is one of the major parts of the Ghatal Master Plan, will be carried out in 20 km and 14 km stretch of New Koshi and Khiraiboksi rivers respectively.
Durbachoti and Chandreswar are the two more crucial rivers in the area. The project of carrying out dredging of these two rivers was also a part of the Ghatal Master Plan. The state government has also taken up the same and the work has started recently. Similarly, desiltation of Palaspai Canal has also been carried out at a cost of Rs 73 crore.
A senior official said the cost of carrying out the desiltation work in the five river channels – Khiraiboksi, New Koshi, Palaspai, Durbachoti and Chandreswar – is around Rs 400 crore. The state government is bearing the entire cost without any financial assistance from the Centre.
It was in 2013 when the state government had submitted the Ghatal Master Plan, the total cost of which is Rs 1214.92 crore, to the Centre that gave the administrative approval in 2015. Though initially the Centre had agreed to bear 75 percent of the project, later it brought it down to 50 percent. But the state is yet to receive any financial assistance despite repeated requests by the state government. Even Trinamool Congress MP from Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency, Dev, had raised the issue in Lok Sabha in August 2016.
