Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote one other letter to PM Narendra Modi on the flood state of affairs in West Bengal, sustaining that Damodar Valley Company (DVC) launched water from its reservoirs with out consulting her authorities, inundating a number of districts.
Responding to Banerjee’s earlier letter to the PM, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Paatil had mentioned the state’s officers had been knowledgeable at each stage in regards to the launch of water from DVC reservoirs, which was important to forestall a significant catastrophe.
The CM mentioned, “Whereas the hon’ble minister claims that the discharge from DVC dams was carried out by consensus and collaboration with the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee, together with consultations with representatives of the federal government of West Bengal, I could respectfully disagree.”
“All of the vital choices are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Fee, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Authorities of India with out arriving at a consensus,” she mentioned. Banerjee claimed that typically water is launched with none discover to the state authorities and the views of her authorities will not be honoured.
“Furthermore peak launch from the reservoirs lasting for a protracted interval of 9 hours had been carried out with solely 3.5 hours discover which proved inadequate for efficient catastrophe administration,” she mentioned within the letter dated September 21, which was made public on Sunday.
Banerjee mentioned that on the night time of September 16, she had requested the DVC chairman to defer the discharge, however it was not adhered to. Stating that her authorities didn’t consent to the height discharge of two.5 lakh cusecs, she mentioned it had requested the quantity of discharge be diminished to 2.Three lakh cusecs at 4.34 pm on September 17 and a couple of lakh cusecs at 5 pm.
“The DVC first issued an advisory to cut back the discharge to 2.2 lakh cusecs at 6 pm and later to 2.1 lakh cusecs at 11.20 pm,” she mentioned. “Sadly, there was a major time lag between our requests and its implementation (starting from 2.5 to 7.5 hours),” she mentioned, including that the delay worsened the state of affairs, “inflicting substantial harm to our state”.
The CM mentioned the height discharge of two.5 lakh cusecs may have been averted. “Had the reservoirs (Maithon and Panchet) been allowed to encroach past their most flood administration degree (MFML), the height discharge may have been moderated, probably minimising the impression on south Bengal,” she mentioned.
“Thus I imagine the union minister’s assertion that each one efforts had been made to minimise flooding just isn’t solely correct,” she mentioned. Banerjee mentioned that as a protest in opposition to the “obvious disregard for West Bengal’s considerations” and the shortage of cooperation concerning flood moderation, her authorities was withdrawing its consultant from the DVRRC instantly.
She mentioned the Ghatal Grasp Plan in Paschim and Purba Medinipur districts, and the flood administration scheme for Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda had been accredited with funding clearance of Rs 1,238.95 crore and Rs 496.70 crore.
Regardless of these tasks being accredited for a 100 per cent central grant underneath the River Administration Actions in Border Areas (RMBA) on March 14, no funds have been obtained, she mentioned.
“The delays in receiving central help and the extended appraisal course of are undermining the urgency of addressing flood administration in a scientific and complete method. The budgetary allocation of Rs 449.57 crore within the 2024-25 fiscal yr is inadequate, thereby confirming that flood administration just isn’t a precedence space for the Central authorities,” she mentioned.
Banerjee urged the prime minister for his private intervention. In her letter to Modi on September 20, she claimed that 5 million folks within the state had been affected by the floods.
In his response to it, Paatil had defined that the releases had been managed by the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), which incorporates representatives from the Central Water Fee, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and the DVC.
BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya accused Banerjee of politicising the flood as a substitute of mitigating sufferings of individuals.
“As a result of rampant corruption by functionaries of her personal social gathering, no central funds could possibly be used to cease recurrence of such conditions. The irrigation canals and rivers weren’t dredged correctly, and TMC leaders bought land and stuffed up waterbodies. The current state of affairs is because of the CM’s mishandling,” he claimed.
