Senior officials in North and South 24-Parganas have accused the irrigation department of slackness in taking up maintenance work of vulnerable earthen dykes and said it had left large swathes of coastal areas vulnerable to Cyclone Asani.

With barely 48 hours before the season’s first cyclonic storm expected to trigger heavy rainfall, several administrative officials and gram panchayats have alleged that the irrigation department was not taking adequate initiatives to repair and carry out maintenance work. They said the authorities appeared to be somewhat stirring into action only after the Alipore weather office had issued an alert.

Officials, including BDOs, in both districts are afraid that with rainfall expected to begin from Monday, earth filling and strengthening work of the damaged dykes would become impossible.

The state has a total dyke stretch and coastline of 10,562km, of which a large part is located in the Sunderbans delta straddling the two Parganas. Officials are worried that the dykes might not hold if there is heavy rainfall and this might lead to flooding.

“The irrigation department is responsible for the maintenance of the dykes. Unfortunately, they seldom do anything and our concerns have only increased because of the impending cyclone. During the past few years, it has been observed that the threat of cyclones increase in May. Cyclones such as Amphan, Fani and Yaas had struck Bengal in May,” a BDO under the Kakdwip sub-division of South 24-Parganas told The Telegraph on Sunday.

“Keeping our past experience in mind, we had been urging the irrigation authorities since April to repair the vulnerable dykes. BDOs had raised the issue at several administrative coordination meetings but like always, work has begun at the 11th hour when the threat of a cyclonic storm or depression is knocking at the door,” the BDO added.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had in June last year during a review meeting after Yaas slammed the irrigation department for not working properly despite crores of rupees being spent.

Sources in the irrigation department’s head office in Salt Lake claimed that a section of officials preferred to work on an emergency basis to avoid the complicated e-tendering process and award work to preferred agencies in the event of a natural calamity.

An earthen dyke in bad shape at Sandeshkhali. Pashupati Das

Last week, the irrigation authorities began repairing precarious stretches of dykes at Mahishamari, Silpara, Muriganga and Ghoramara in South 24-Parganas. But residents feel such temporary and hurried repairs would not strengthen the dykes enough for them to withstand heavy tidal waves.

“Irrigation officials begin strengthening the dykes once rainfall starts. But wet muddy earth gets washed away fast, creating breaches in the dyke that inundates our land,” said Sanat Halder, a Silpara resident.

In North 24-Parganas, emergency maintenance work on several weakened dykes under the Sandeshkhali 1 and II blocks, Hansnabad, Hingalganj and Minikhan began only last week. “Last year before the Assembly polls, the irrigation authorities had repaired the dykes with bamboo, earth and sandbags. The repaired stretches have been badly damaged in the past few months and the dykes are in no position to withstand high tidal pressure, particularly during a cyclone,” said a BDO in North 24-Parganas.

An official in the Basirhat sub-division alleged due to delay in taking up maintenance work, several earthen dykes along the Bidyadhari, Roymangal, Kalindi and Kalagachi rivers remained vulnerable.

The BDO of Sandeshkhali I, Supratim Acharya, said: “We have identified weak dykes and informed the irrigation authorities to begin work on them. They have assured us to do the job fast.”

A deputy magistrate in Basirhat said irrigation authorities had been handed over a list of vulnerable dykes in Hingalganj, Hansnabad and Sandeshkhali a month ago and work was on to repair them.

Residents alleged that the pace of work had been tardy.

“Asani is set to make landfall a couple of days from now and the pace of work to repair the dykes lacks any sense of urgency. Our land will be flooded with saline water if the dykes are breached,” said a villager in Hingalganj.

Irrigation minister Saumen Mahapatra, however, denied the allegations.

“There has been no slackness in repairing the dykes. We have taken up maintenance work well in advance and alerted our officials with instructions to take up immediate measures to protect the weaker portion of river banks as well. We have already repaired most of the earthen dykes that were damaged due to Cyclone Yaas last year,” he said.