On Bengal Floods, Mamata Banerjee’s Large Transfer Towards INDIA Ally-Dominated Jharkhand

Ms Banerjee reiterated that the floods are a “man-made” catastrophe.

Repeating her cost that the floods in West Bengal are a “man-made” catastrophe, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and blamed the discharge of water by the Damodar Valley Company from reservoirs in Jharkhand for the state of affairs. Her authorities has additionally “sealed” the state’s borders with Jharkhand, dominated by INDIA ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and stopped the entry of heavy autos. 

In her letter on Friday, Ms Banerjee mentioned that every one districts of South Bengal – Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Birbhum, Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipore and Paschim Medinipore – have seen devastating floods due to an “unprecedented, unplanned and unilateral launch of an enormously big quantity of water at practically 5 lakh cusec” from the Maithon and Panchet dams owned and maintained by the Damodar Valley Company (DVC). 

“The state is now dealing with the most important flood in Decrease Damodar & adjoining areas after 2009. Greater than 1,000 sq km of space stands affected and practically 5 million folks of the state have been drawn into the vortex of miseries for lack of crops, damages to public infrastructure & non-public belongings, together with homes, cattle and so on,” the Trinamool Congress chief wrote. 

“I’m compelled to name it a man-made flood, a state of affairs engineered by sheer neglect… If this unilateral method continues, bringing hardship to the folks of my state, we shall be left with no possibility however to disengage solely from DVC and withdraw our participation. We can not enable this ongoing injustice to have an effect on our folks yr after yr,” she warned. 

On Wednesday, Ms Banerjee had mentioned that each the DVC and the Jharkhand authorities had been saving the state by releasing water into Bengal – DVC from the Maithon and Panchet dams, and Jharkhand from the Tenughat dam. 

“The Central authorities’s DVC and Jharkhand’s Tenughat and Panchet… they’ve saved their very own state and launched water into Bengal,” she had mentioned whereas visiting flood-hit areas. 

She made the identical allegation on Thursday as nicely and truck motion on the Nationwide Freeway-2 has been utterly paralysed after the West Bengal authorities banned the entry of heavy autos from the Jharkhand aspect on the Dibudih test publish later that night. Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Madhvi Mishra informed information company PTI that the West Bengal police have stopped autos at checkposts. 

BJP’s Digs

Commenting on the developments, Assam Chief Minister and senior BJP chief Himanta Biswa Sarma hit out at each Ms Banerjee and the JMM authorities in Jharkhand. 

“The folks of Bengal are affected by floods as a result of failure of the Bengal authorities. However I’m stunned that Mamata Didi isn’t venting her anger on her officers, however on the folks of Jharkhand. She is educating a lesson to the folks of Jharkhand by sealing the state’s border, and the honourable Chief Minister of Jharkhand is silent,” Mr Sarma posted in Hindi on X on Friday.

He claimed the Jharkhand authorities was sustaining silence regardless of the BJP authorities on the Centre saying the state was not at fault. ‘The folks of Jharkhand ought to suppose whether or not they need to give an opportunity once more to a celebration which is unable to guard the dignity of its state,” Mr Sarma added, alluding to the Meeting elections within the state which shall be held in direction of the tip of this yr.

BJP chief and Chief of the Opposition within the Bengal Meeting, Suvendu Adhikari, accused the Trinamool Congress chief of attempting to divert consideration from the rape and homicide of a trainee physician in Kolkata final month and the protests that adopted together with her menace to sever ties with the DVC. 

“Is she making such feedback totally conscious of their implications, or merely for public consumption, given the rising protests towards the rape-murder of a health care provider at RG Kar hospital? The state of affairs is revealing the misdeeds of her get together, the TMC, and her authorities’s well being division… If Mamata Banerjee cuts ties with the DVC, eight districts will lose energy. Does she not realise that DVC-run energy crops provide electrical energy to a good portion of South Bengal,” he requested.

Centre’s Take

In an announcement, the Union energy ministry mentioned that every one authorities involved had been knowledgeable concerning the launch of water from the dams and that water is launched on the recommendation of the the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), which has representatives from the West Bengal and Jharkhand governments as nicely. 

All water launch advices from Maithon and Panchet dams had been made in session with the DVC and the Authorities of West Bengal, it mentioned, including that the Tenughat Dam, operated by the Jharkhand authorities, made an enormous launch of 85,000 cusecs. The Jharkhand authorities, the ministry mentioned, refused to convey this dam throughout the ambit of the DVRRC.

(With inputs from PTI)