Kolkata: The flood situation in six districts of West Bengal became dire on Tuesday. The floods have killed 15 people in the state and left lakhs homeless or displaced. At the same time, a round of accusations and counter-allegations have also started between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition over the alleged release of excess water by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) dam.
Officials said about three lakh people have been displaced due to the rain and release of water from the DVC dam for the past few days. At the same time, large parts of East Vardhman, Paschim Vardhman, Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly, Howrah, and South 24 Parganas have been submerged. DVC has released 5.43 lakh cusecs of water from July 31 till Tuesday evening.
Till Monday, seven people had died due to floods while 2.5 lakh were affected. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is overseeing the relief and rescue work, has sent her ministers to the affected areas and is likely to conduct an aerial survey of Howrah and Hooghly districts on Wednesday to take stock of the situation, officials said. Banerjee will then hold a meeting with the administrative officials.
“We are collecting information about 15 people who died due to floods. Some people died due to electrocution, snake bite, or wall collapse. We are waiting for the final report from the district administration.”
He said that many areas in the affected six districts were submerged and people were trying to reach safely by walking in water till waist. He said that Hooghly, Howrah, and Paschim Medinipur are the worst affected by the floods. According to the official, in Hooghly district alone, about 79 thousand people are affected by the floods and there has been the loss of crops and cattle worth lakhs of rupees.
A Hooghly district official said, “Around 345 villages in the district have been affected by the floods and crops in an area of more than 34,000 hectares have been destroyed. 1159 houses have been damaged in the district. At present, 89 relief camps have been opened for the people.
The situation is worse in Kolkata’s neighboring Howrah district, where around 1.8 lakh from 10-gram panchayats are affected. Howrah district official said, “Seven-gram panchayats are completely submerged while three-gram panchayats are partially submerged. Udayanarayanpur block is the most affected. Water from Rupnarayan and Dwarkeshwar rivers has entered residential areas.
State Irrigation Minister Soumen Mohapatra visited Udaynarayanpur in Howrah district and took stock of the relief and rescue operation. In Paschim Medinipur, 172-gram panchayats and seven municipalities have been affected by the floods and 212 relief camps have been opened for the people. The road connecting Medinipur to Keshpur is also submerged.
The official said that one lakh tarpaulins, one thousand metric tonnes of rice, packets of drinking water, and clean clothes have been sent to the relief camps. On Monday, the Army and the Air Force took up relief and rescue operations in the Hooghly district. At the same time, political allegations and counter-allegations have also started in the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP regarding the flood situation in the state. Mohapatra accused the central government jurisdiction DVC of causing a “man-made disaster” by releasing water.
Talking to reporters after visiting Howrah, he said, “DVC deliberately released so much water which created a flood-like situation. The central government deliberately created a man-made disaster situation in Bengal. We condemn such politics.” BJP state spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya termed the allegations “baseless”.
“The Trinamool Congress government should know why the water was released before making such allegations. There is definitely logic behind the release of water by DVC. The fact remains that the State Government failed to carry out the relief and rescue operations in a proper manner. So now blaming others.”
The DVC had said on Saturday that due to rains in the upper reaches of the river in Jharkhand, the water level in Panchet and Maithon dams had reached the highest level of catchment capacity and in such circumstances, it was mandatory to release the water.
