Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that excessive release of water from the dams of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) left several parts of the state inundated and claimed these floods were “manmade”.

“The DVC has released 3.5 lakh cusec of water. The DVC did not release such a huge quantum of water after 2009. I have spoken to them, but nothing was done,” said the chief minister while visiting the flood-hit areas of Pursura in Hooghly on Wednesday.

After a trip to Pursura, Mamata also visited some waterlogged areas in Hooghly and West Midnapore, including Ghatal.

Senior government officials said the chief minister spoke to her Jharkhand counterpart so that the dams controlled by the neighbouring state released water in phases.

Mamata also confirmed that she had held a conversation on the issue with Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, but the neighbouring state did nothing.

Mamata speaks to a woman hit by floods in Hooghly.

“The state faces troubles if the dams of the DVC release sudden water... The problem becomes critical if water is released from other dams in the neighbouring state,”
said an official.

This was the reason, officials said, the chief minister requested the neighbouring state to release water in phases.

“But the neighbouring state did not listen to Bengal and released water from some other dams. This is the reason why parts of Bankura and West Midnapore were inundated,” said an official.

Mamata alleged that as the Centre did not carry out dredging in the DVC network, the water-holding capacity of the dams of the central utility has gone down, leaving many parts of the state marooned.

Sources in Nabanna said that the state government had already evacuated more than 10,000 persons from the low-lying areas of West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Hooghly
and Howrah.

“Some other districts such as Bankura, Birbhum, East Burdwan, North and South 24-Parganas were facing trouble due to the rise of water level in several rivers.... The situation in these districts could deteriorate if the DVC releases water further,” said an official.

Officials also said that the DVC could release another 1.5 lakh cusec water on Thursday, which could leave some more districts in trouble.

“Already more than two lakh people were affected... More and more people could be affected if the DVC continues to release huge quantum of water,” said a source.

In Hooghly’s Khanakul I block, 11 gram panchayats were inundated as the embankments of local rivers and canals were breached in multiple places.

The situation worsened in Khanakul-II, Pursurah, and Goghat in Hooghly’s Arambagh.

Conditions also deteriorated in Howrah’s Amta and Udaynarayanpur as floodwaters began entering new areas. Jamalpur in East Burdwan, along with Bankura’s Mejia and Barjora, faced similar consequences. Even a few areas in East Midnapore, including Panskura, have been flooded.

“The fresh release of DVC water, which started on Tuesday, began flowing into the lower Damodar basin early Wednesday morning, resulting in the flooding of new areas in Hooghly and Howrah,” said a senior official. The state government has opened around 200 relief camps in the flood-hit areas, a source in Nabanna said.

Officials also expressed hope that the situation would improve from Friday.

They said that the DVC could, on Wednesday, hold back the release of more water as rainfall has subsided in its catchment areas in Jharkhand.

Mamata wrote in her X-handle that she visited the flood-affected areas of Pursura, Goghat and Arambagh in Hooghly and Ghatal in West Midnapore.

The chief minister is supposed to spend the night in West Midnapore and she is scheduled to visit some more flood-hit areas on Thursday before returning to Calcutta.

“I am with the people of flood-hit areas and all assistance would be extended to the affected people. I have given required instructions to the administration in this regard,” Mamata wrote on X.

The BJP sharply criticised Mamata for her allegations against the DVC and for calling the flood “manmade”.

“CM Mamata Banerjee your ploy and strategy to shift blame is getting old and repetitive. Every time around this time you utter these words - “Man made Flood” and try to hold the Central Govt, the Jharkhand Govt and the DVC responsible for floods in West Bengal,” BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, wrote on X.

Adhikari continued on X: “However the truth is that you and your Irrigation & Waterways Department are an utter failure. Neither do you take any preventive or precautionary measures before the monsoons nor you have taken any steps to boost the infrastructure in order to tackle the annual problem.”

The Nandigram MLA claimed that the World Bank approved Rs 5,000 crore loan to WB Govt to build and operate new irrigation structures such as flood walls, river embankment armouring, desilting the adjoining rivers, creating small-scale storage structures, creek rehabilitation, digging canals etc to manage the flood situation in the Lower Damodar Basin area.

Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty