A nine-member team from Bengal comprising four ministers, MPs and MLAs is slated to meet Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar next week to demand funds to implement the Ghatal Master Plan and four other similar projects designed to mitigate the damage from natural disasters.
Sources said the outreach would take place at the chief minister’s direction.
“The Ghatal Master Plan is the main issue for which we will meet the Union minister of Jal Shakti and the vice-chairman of NITI Aayog on Tuesday as directed by our chief minister. We have already received the appointments in Delhi. We will also place proposals for Digha and the Sunderbans master plans, and others pertaining to the erosion of the Ganges as well as desiltation of various barrages, including the DVC,” state irrigation minister Saumen Mahapatra said.
Apart from Mahapatra, ministers Manas Ranjan Bhunia, Humayun Kabir and Srikanta Mahato will be in the team travelling to Delhi.
After touring the flood-hit areas of Ghatal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said she would send a team to Delhi to pursue the Centre in approving the project.
During her visit to Ghatal to survey damages from widespread flooding, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said senior Bengal ministers and Trinamul Congress MPs would seek an appointment with Shekhawat to demand funds for the implementation of the Ghatal master plan.Ghatal, where thousands have been rendered homeless, was among the districts that were badly hit by continued floods.
After touring the flood-hit areas of Ghatal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she would send a team to Delhi.
The Ghatal master plan is a cluster of projects that includes the dredging and widening of riverbeds, strengthening of embankments, and widening of the confluences of at least 10 large rivers, including the Kansabati, Rupnarayan and Shilabati in addition to around 40 channels and subchannels, passing through East Midnapore and West Midnapore.
In 2012, the state government had sent to Delhi a detailed project report of the plan, estimated at Rs 1,200 crore, and received administrative and financial approvals from the Narendra Modi government in 2015. The Centre had agreed to pitch in 75 per cent of the project cost but later reduced its share to 50 per cent. However, no money has been sent till date, prompting the chief minister to criticise the Narendra Modi government during her recent visit to Ghatal. The state government has already dredged a large part of the Durbachati, Khiraibaksi and New Koshi rivers using its own funds.
“The Ghatal Master Plan was a project in which the Centre had given every required approval but did not give us the money. Our chief minister even wrote to the Prime Minister several times. We expect our visit to Delhi next week will be successful,” said Manas Ranjan Bhunia, water-resources investigation and development minister, and Trinamul MLA from Sabang.
State government officials said the Ghatal Master Plan was crucial to save the area from annual floods and to mitigate yearly expenditure on the same from the state coffers. “The assessed expenditure stood at Rs 1,200 crore in 2012 and now it will cost more. However, state government has executed a portion of the project. Still, the problem needs permanent solution for which funds from the Centre are mandatory,” said a senior official of the irrigation department.
The state government has also prepared a set of proposals for the Sunderbans and Digha. “The issue of Ganga’s erosion is also a serious one, mainly for Malda and Murshidabad. We will also ask the Centre to desilt the basins of the Damodar, including its barrages,” Mahapatra said.
In several administrative meetings, she has reportedly expressed her concern about how back-to-back cyclones such as Fani, Amphan and Yaas had disrupted normal life in the Sunderbans and that large stretches of embankment were destroyed. Mamata had reportedly also emphasised on the progress of the Digha Master Plan after visiting the tourist town in the wake of Yaas this May.
