Minister Sabina Yeasmin, who was on a tour of an erosion-hit area in Murshidabad’s Samserganj on Saturday morning, narrowly missed being hit by a brick thrown by a villager angry with the government’s alleged failure to address problems of hundreds of those who lost homes to raging rivers.

The brick hit local Trinamul leader Nasiruddin Ahamad, who was part of the minister’s contingent.The incident took place in Pratapganj village, where on Thursday morning, at least four homes were lost to erosion of the banks of the Ganga.

“Pratapganj residents, many of whom have had to move to temporary shelters inside school buildings, have been fuming as to why the irrigation department has not tended to their village like it successfully has to neighbouring villages,” said a local source.

Yeasmin, who is the minister of state for irrigation and waterways, was carrying out a survey of Pratapganj accompanied by Trinamul leaders and Samserganj MLA Amirul Islam, SDO Shinjan Shekhar and BDO Krishna Chandra Munda.The incident occurred towards the end of their visit.

“Out of nowhere, a brick came flying and landed on Ahamad,” said an eyewitness, adding that the bleeding Trinamul leader fell to the ground before being rushed by party workers to Jangipur subdivisional hospital where he received 12 stitches.

Villagers also clashed with ruling party workers. Yeasmin and other officials were herded by security personnel to a nearby shelter and evacuated in a boat. Speaking to this newspaper, Yeasmin said: “I was neither hit nor heckled. We will ensure the irrigation department gives due attention to problems in this village.... The identity of the assailant is still unknown.”The local Trinamul accused the CPM of provoking the attack on their leader.

“The CPM were trying to target our minister and ended up injuring a leader. This is dirty politics,” said MLA Amirul Islam.CPM district committee member Mohammed Azad denied the allegation. “Local residents are probably responsible for the fracas. The CPM had nothing to do with it,” Azad said.

Local residents explained that neighbouring villages including Shibpur, Dosripara and Dhangora had been made successfully “erosion-proof” by the irrigation department last year. They said the government had spent Rs 33 crore on those villages but did nothing for Pratapganj.

“We need, and expect, something similar,” said a local resident.Yeasmin said that surveys in this connection were being carried out before the incident on Saturday.“Local people need to cooperate in order to make such measures a success,” she said.Jangipur superintendent of police Bholanath Pandey said no formal complaint had been lodged and that Ahamad was recuperating after treatment.