Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday pulled up several government agencies and asked officials to explain the reasons for the devastation that Cyclone Yaas caused to the coastal sea resort of Digha.
Starting Wednesday morning, Cyclone Yaas’s landfall caused widespread flooding in Old Digha and New Digha, damaging several guard walls along the seaside and also demolished a large part of Dheu Sagar, a park located in New Digha that Mamata had inaugurated in 2019 along with a convention centre and hotel across the road.
Mamata had launched a slew of projects for Digha and had aimed to put Digha on the fast track to turn it into an international tourist and business destination.
“The chief minister had grand plans for Digha ever since 2011, when she conceptualised the Marine Drive,” said an aide, referring to the coastal highway linking Digha, Mandarmani and Tajpur. Around 1km stretch of the Marine Drive was washed away in Sankarpur on Wednesday after 2.6km of an under-construction guard wall collapsed because of flooding.
Mamata helmed an online meeting with district officials, including district magistrate Purnendu Kumar Maji who attended virtually. The meeting, which took place at the Digha-Sankarpur Development Authority’s office shortly after the chief minister handed over a situation report requesting Rs 10,000 crore in aid for Digha and the same amount for the Sunderbans from Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kalaikunda, saw Mamata placing chief secretary Alapan Bandhopadhyay in charge of the DSDA in place of incumbent Jyotirmoy Kar.
Speaking in a tone that did not hide her dismay at the situation in Digha, the chief minister urged acceptance from local officials, saying, “You must understand. Unless there is someone important at the helm, nothing will get done here... They’ve left projects lying around for ages, irrigation, bridges... For 7-8 years I've only kept hearing that the bridges are being completed”.
She then proceeded to publicly instruct the chief secretary to “direct an expert team to take care of Digha”.
Mamata was referring to the remaining links in the Marine Drive project: three bridges connecting the roads so as to form a continuous thoroughfare between the tourist towns of Digha, Mandarmani, Tajpur and Sankarpur.
Responding to her deputation, chief secretary Bandhopadhyay said: “Madam, what you have just said... Digha needs to be restored to its former glory that was put into action by you.”
Notably, the chief minister made her announcement in the middle of a briefing by the district magistrate regarding the ground situation.
“Digha is a tourist spot... All the beaches are ruined... Who will pay for this? Where is the money,” she said, before making her announcement which sparked some protest from local officials.
“Because there have been major damages, I am handing over the DSDA to Alapan. A new setup is required. Unless there is an important person it will not happen, please understand,” she explained.
The DSDA until recently was helmed by former chairman Sisir Adhikari, Trinamul MP, who was removed from his post shortly after his son Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP in December last year.
"Maybe we will get nothing, but this is what we have told him," Mamata added, referring to her folder handed over to Modi around 3pm before she proceeded to the DSDA.
Mamata also stressed on the need for the environment department to plant more trees to form a natural buffer against storms. Later in the evening, she took a tour of beaches in Old Digha along with the chief secretary to assess damages. She will return to Calcutta on Saturday.
