Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that Bengal would sever all ties with the central utility Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), something she had threatened on Thursday too, for “unilaterally” releasing water from Jharkhand.
In her letter, Mamata urged Modi to promptly approve and disburse funds for crisis management, as the sudden release of water has inundated vast swathes of south Bengal.
With the clear intent to keep harping on the “manmade flooding” issue amid the undying protests over the RG Kar tragedy, Mamata posted the four-page letter to the Prime Minister on social media, her third on the matter since August 2021.
She claimed 50 lakh people in the state have been affected by the calamity and urged Modi for monetary assistance to adequately address the devastation.
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 have been subjected to devastating floods, causing severe misery to the masses.
“If this unilateral approach continues, bringing hardship to the people of my state, we will be left with no option but to disengage entirely from DVC and withdraw our participation. We cannot allow this ongoing injustice to affect our people year after year,” wrote the Trinamool Congress chief, shouting from rooftops on the issue for the fourth time this week.
She said that the districts of East and West Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura, East and West Midnapore, Howrah and Hooghly have been affected by the flooding.
“l earnestly request that you give this matter serious consideration and direct the ministries concerned to address these issues as a top priority, including the sanction and release of substantial central funds to undertake extensive flood management works in the interest of the people, who suffer the most,” she wrote. The CM added that Bengal was doing its best to save the lives and properties of people in the identified flood-prone areas.
She said Bengal was now facing the biggest flood in the lower Damodar and adjoining areas since 2009, and more than a thousand square kilometres stood affected, with nearly 50 lakh people being drawn into the vortex of miseries for loss of crops, damages to public infrastructure and private assets, including homes and livestock.
“I am compelled to call it a manmade flood,” wrote the chief minister.
Sources in her party have admitted to Mamata’s eagerness to optimally utilise the political opportunity from the flooding and said that she was trying to determine the next course of action by the ruling dispensation.
In the letter, Mamata said information on the critical condition of downstream rivers, already flowing close to or above the extreme danger level, was provided to the DVC authorities, along with the request to defer the release of water. The chief minister said she has spoken to the DVC chairman on September 16.
“Combined water release was increased in quick successions on September 17 from 90,000 cusecs to abruptly 2,50,000 cusecs within nine hours which continued for long hours,” she wrote, adding that the total discharge in three days was equivalent to 8.31 lakh acre-feet up to the last available report.
