KOLKATA: The release of water from Damodar Valley Corporation’s (DVC) Panchet and Maithan reservoirs, along with incessant rain in Jharkhand, has created a flood-like situation in several districts in West Bengal.
After an administrative meeting at Nabanna, the state administrative headquarters, on Tuesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee once again blamed the Central Government and the DVC for this situation.
She said, “It is not a flood. Several areas have been inundated with water. People are facing hardship due to the release of water.”
The West Bengal CM held a virtual meeting with all the district magistrates, superintendents of police, and police commissioners of the state to deal with the flood situation. Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, state DGP Rajeev Kumar, and senior government officials were also present in the meeting.
The Chief Minister also expressed regret over not getting results after a long struggle.
“For the water released by the DVC a vast area has been submerged. Despite repeated requests, they are not listening. Our delegation went to Delhi and discussed the problem. I have also written a letter to the Prime Minister myself. I have been fighting for 14 years but there is no result,” she said.
She claimed that from June 18 to Tuesday, the DVC has released 27 thousand lakh cubic meters of water. As a result, a flood situation has arisen in some districts like West Midnapore, Hooghly, Howrah, East Midnapore. In this situation, the CM has ordered the administration to be active in relief work.
According to sources, from Tuesday morning, DVC has started releasing 45,000 cusecs of water. Out of this, about 36,000 cusecs of water is being released from Panchet, and about 9,000 cusecs of water is being released from Maithan.
Continuous heavy rain in Jharkhand has made the DVC reservoirs full. With no other option being left, DVC has started release of water from its two reservoirs in West Bengal, and that water is flowing through Damodar River towards Howrah, Hooghly, and East Burdwan districts. As a result, the areas in the lower catchment of Damodar in West Bengal are under threat of flooding.
Areas like Khanakul, Arambagh in Hooghly, and Amta, Udaynarayanpur in Howrah are already being flooded.
The West Bengal Irrigation Department has asked the residents of the areas concerned to be alert. Executive engineers of the Irrigation Department said that if the water pressure in Durgapur Barrage increases, the amount of water released from there may also increase. As a result, the situation is feared to become more complicated.
On the other hand, according to DVC sources, the water level in Panchet and Maithan reservoirs has increased due to continuous rains in Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Bokaro, and the upper Damodar catchment areas in Jharkhand. The decision to release water has been taken to control the excess water in the reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has ordered the administration of ten districts to keep a close eye on the situation. The administration has already been activated to carry out relief and rescue operations in the flooded areas. The process of evacuating the residents of low-lying areas of Howrah, Hooghly, and East Burdwan to safer places has begun.
However, there has been a debate over the release of water by DVC for several days. It has been alleged that the water was released without prior consultation with the state government. Earlier, the Chief Minister had criticised the ‘unilateral release of water’ by DVC. She called the flood caused by the release of water from the DVC a ‘man-made flood’.
In response, the DVC authorities said that they release as much water as they receive orders to release from a designated committee.
The committee includes representatives of the West Bengal government, Jharkhand government, and the DVC authorities, along with the Central Water Commission. The committee decides how much water should be released after looking at the amount of water in the reservoirs and rainfall. Therefore, the accusation is unreasonable, DVC sources said.