Mamata Banerjee will undertake a four-day visit to north Bengal next week when she will hold a meeting with government officials probably on the Malbazar flash flood and attend a Bijoya Sanmilani that will be organised by the Trinamul Congress in Siliguri.

The chief minister will touch down at the Bagdogra airport on October 17 (Monday) and then head for Malbazar, located around 60km away, in Jalpaiguri district.

“She will stay at a private resort in Teshimla, on the outskirts of Malbazar. The following day, she will hold a meeting with officials of various departments at the same place and leave for Siliguri,” said a source.

Around 100 officials of different government departments and representatives of Malbazar municipality are likely to attend the meeting. Sources have said the agenda of the meeting is likely to be the reasons for the flash flood that claimed eight lives during the immersion of Durga idols in the Mal river during Dashami celebrations on September 5.

“The chief minister is likely to take stock of the situation in the wake of the Malbazar incident and enquire about streams which originate from mountains in Darjeeling and Bhutan and flow through the Dooars. She might also meet people who lost their near and dear ones,” a source said.

After the flash flood, ministers and Trinamul leaders in north Bengal rushed to Malbazar to meet the bereaved families and the injured persons.

Ministers like Udayan Guha and Bulu Chik Baraik (who is also the Malbazar MLA) and Siliguri mayor Gautam Deb handed over financial compensations granted by the government to the kin of the deceased persons, and the injured people.

Malbazar municipality run by Trinamul had promised contractual jobs to one member each in the victims’ families.

On Thursday afternoon, senior administrative and police officials, including Jalpaiguri district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu and police chief Debarshi Dutta, visited Malbazar.

They also went to the private resort, where the chief minister is set to stay, to check the infrastructure.

On October 18, Mamata will reach Siliguri. She will attend the Bijoya Sammilani that is likely to be held at Baghajatin Park in the city the following day. The chief minister will return to Calcutta on October 20.

After the Malbazar disaster, Opposition parties had targeted the local civic body and the government asking whether adequate measures had been taken to ensure devotees’ safety on the riverbank. A section of local residents blamed the tragedy on a makeshift bund built in the river to divert water.

“Altogether, Trinamul leaders here are in an uncomfortable position these days as a section of residents is disgruntled with the civic body and the administration. The BJP, Left Front and the Congress are consistently flagging the issue. The chief minister’s visit is likely to soothe the local people,” said a senior Trinamul functionary.

Dilip Pandit, a Malbazar resident who lost his wife and son in the incident, has filed a police complaint against the civic body, alleging the bund had led to the flash flood and adequate preventive arrangements had been missing on the riverbank.

A boat ferries people near the confluence of the Mahananda (right) and the Panchnoi near Santoshinagar in Siliguri on Thursday. Picture by Passang Yolmo