Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote yet another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Bengal's flood situation, insisting that central utility Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) released water from its facilities without consulting the state government here and accusing the Union ministry of Jal Shakti of taking critical decisions unilaterally.
“All critical decisions are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Commission, ministry of Jal Shakti, government of India, without arriving at a consensus,” wrote the Bengal chief minister.
“While the hon’ble minister claims that the release from DVC dams was carried out by consensus and collaboration with the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee, including consultations with representatives of the government of (Bengal), I may respectfully disagree,” she added, referring to the response received late on Friday from Union Jal Shakti minister C.R. Patil to her previous letter to the Prime Minister. Patil had claimed that Bengal’s officials were informed at every stage about the release of water.
“Moreover, peak release from the reservoirs lasting for a prolonged period of nine hours was conducted with only 3.5 hours notice, which proved insufficient for effective disaster management,” she wrote.
In her Saturday's letter — made public on Sunday — Mamata said water was sometimes released without any notice to the Bengal government, and the views of her government were not honoured. With the clear intent to keep harping on the "manmade floods" issue amid the undying protests over the RG Kar tragedy, her letters are being made public by the ruling dispensation.
In her Friday letter, Mamata had asserted that Bengal would sever all ties with the central utility for “unilaterally” releasing water from Jharkhand, which inundates vast swathes of south Bengal, urging immediate sanction and release of funds for crisis mitigation.
Drawing Modi’s attention to the “unprecedented, unplanned, and unilateral” release of five lakh cusecs from the combined system of Maithon and Panchet dams owned and maintained by the DVC, Mamata said all districts of south Bengal had been subjected to devastating floods, causing severe misery to people.
In her Saturday letter, Mamata said her government never consented to the peak discharge of 2.5 lakh cusecs, and that it had requested the volume of discharge be reduced to 2.3 lakh cusecs at 4.34pm on September 17, and 2 lakh cusecs at 5pm.
“The DVC first issued an advisory to reduce the release to 2.2 lakh cusecs at 6pm and later to 2.1 lakh cusecs at 11.20pm. Unfortunately, there was a significant time lag between our requests and its implementation (ranging from 2.5 to 7.5 hours),” she wrote, adding that the delay worsened the situation. “Had the reservoirs been allowed to encroach beyond their maximum flood management level, the peak discharge could have been moderated, potentially minimising the impact on south Bengal.”
Mamata said that in protest against the apparent disregard for Bengal’s concerns, her government was withdrawing its representative from the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee immediately.
Sources in her party have anonymously admitted to Mamata’s eagerness to optimally utilise the political opportunity from the flooding, and said she was trying to determine the next course of action.
The Trinamool supremo, her party and her government have been under tremendous pressure — some might say unprecedented in the 13-year stint in power — since the alleged mishandling of the grisly rape and murder at RG Kar and its fallout.
Last Thursday, she announced her intent to launch a political battle against what she called manmade floods, mounting a scathing offensive on the BJP-led Centre, in which the Bengal Opposition saw a desperate bid to divert attention from the burning RG Kar issue.