Flood in West Bengal: Discharge from dams continue, toll mounts to 69

Overall, nearly 52 lakh people have been affected till now. On Sunday, the Army joined the relief and rescue operations in the state.

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Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who on Monday, announced compensation for the victims, said: “The worst seems to be over as far as the flood situation is concerned.” She was referring to reports that the deep depression lying in the West Bengal-Jharkhand border has reportedly moved to Chhattisgarh during the day.
While visiting a school at North-24 Parganas district’s Ashok Nagar, which is operating as a relief centre, Mamata said the state will provide relief of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. While Rs 2 lakh will be given to those who have lost their limbs, Rs 60,000 will be handed over to the other injured.

While authorities said with the high tide in river Hooghly receding and the rains stopping, there was hope that the situation would improve from Tuesday, the impact of heavy discharges from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) dams continued to inundate new areas.

“DVC is a big problem for us. They had said that they will release 70,000 cusec water last night, but released 90,000 cusec. We will take up this matter,” said Mamata.

She added that the state irrigation secretary has been asked to coordinate with the Jharkhand government to ensure no more water is released. “Two years ago, I had written to the DVC asking it to undertake dredging and modernisation of its reservoirs to enhance its storage capacity. I will take up this matter with the Centre,” the CM said.

For the last three days, DVC dams have discharged 1.30 lakh cusecs of water. While Subarnerakha and Kharkai river basin systems had released 35,000 cusecs from Jharkhand, Tilaiah, Maithon, Messanjore and other dams have released another 1.20 lakh cusecs resulting in rivers like Damodar, Ajoy, Mayurakshi to rise above the danger levels and inundate vast areas.

When contacted, DVC Chairman said the Damodar electricity manufacturing authorities, in consultation with the Central Water Commission, has decided how much water is to be released. “The DVC did not have anything to do with release of dam water,” he claimed, adding that during the last three days, DVC dams have discharged nearly 100,000 cusecs daily.

State Irrigation Minister Rajib Banerjee said, “Even though there was less rainfall today, the situation remained unchanged in Burdwan, Hooghly, Howrah, West and East Midnapore districts because of fresh release of water following heavy rains in upper catchment areas.” The districts of South-24 Parganas, North-24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, Bankura and Birbhum were other badly affected regions, he added.

It was found that the water level was above the danger mar in Udainarayanpur and Amta areas of Howrah as water was entering through canals and creeks as banks of Damodar have breached in several places. Locals claimed that the relief they have received was inadequate. “As 500 people are marooned in one area for three to four days, only chira and gur was given and for a day only. That too, not to everyone,” said a local.

Meanwhile, Mamata, who stayed at the state secretariat Nabanna overnight to monitor the flood situation, on Monday visited affected areas at Asok Nagar and Habra in North-24 Parganas and distributed relief materials.

Criticising the Centre for not responding adequately to Bengal’s crisis, she said: “The state will provide relief from its own resources. It will neither hit the streets to raise money from the public (a dig at CPM) nor will it beg for Centre’s mercy. It will also ensure that everyone gets relief irrespective of party affiliations. There will be no politics over relief.”

She added that from Tuesday, video conferencing with district officials will begin to review the situation.