Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has shot off yet another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking permanent solution to the recurring floods in the south-western districts of Bengal due to the water released every year by dams maintained by centrally run Damodar Valley Corporation.
Alleging “uncontrolled and unplanned” discharge of water by the DVC Banerjee on Tuesday wrote, “I had highlighted the structural factorsthat give birth to grave man-made flood situation in southern Bengal, repeatedly, pitifully and tragically. Unless the Government of India addresses the basic underlying structural and managerial issues, both on a short term and on a long-term basis, the disasters will continue unmitigated in our lower riparian state.”
In her 4-page letter in which she referred to the grim flood situation in Bankura, Hooghly, Burdwan, Asansol, Birbhum and two Midnapores as “man-made flood,” Banerjee alleged that initially DVC disregard IMD’s warnings of heavy rainfall and “kept the water discharge from the dams at a low level and when there was heavy rainfall, it discharged about 10 lakh acre-feet of water between September 30 and October 2, which caused serious devastation in lower Damodar region before the festive season.”
She wrote that “this annual problem requires immediate short-term andlong-term measures so that the sufferings of the people are mitigatedand the national loss in terms of loss of life and property is avoided.”
