West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asked the state police to seal for three days the border between West Bengal and Jharkhand as many districts of the state saw a flood-like situation.

Large areas in at least 10 districts in West Bengal have been inundated and many rivers were flowing above the danger mark. (PTI photo)

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also flayed the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and Jharkhand government for triggering the “man-made flood” alleging that while there had been heavy rains in the state, the flood was triggered by huge amount of water released by the DVC and Jharkhand government from dams.

“We have decided to seal the Bengal-Jharkhand border for three days. Please convey this message to Rajiv Kumar, director general of state police. Several areas are inundated, and vehicles may get washed away. I don’t want that. I am also going to snap all ties with the DVC,” Mamata Banerjee told reporters during a visit to flood-hit areas on Thursday.

With the heavy downpour in the catchment areas of several reservoirs, the Damodar Valley Corporation has opened up its gates, releasing a huge volume of water from its Panchet, Maithon dams and Tenughat dam, operated by the Jharkhand government.
The chief minister has been touring flood-hit areas in Howrah, Hooghly, and West Midnapore districts since Wednesday.

“Look at the water current. Fresh water has been released by the Jharkhand government and the DVC since Wednesday night. This has inundated new areas. The combined flow reached a peak of almost 4 lakh cusecs. Never in the recent past, they released so much water in one go. When we request them to release water during dry season they refuse,” she said.

Large areas in at least 10 districts in eastern West Bengal have been inundated and many rivers were flowing above the danger mark, as heavy rainfall lashed West Bengal and Jharkhand since September 15.

Just because people in Jharkhand were facing problems, they released the water. I cannot allow my people to die by saving Jharkhand. This is a man-made flood. This is not a flood caused by heavy rain. This is pre-planned. The water level is rising every minute. I am really alarmed after what I saw. I doubt whether we will keep any contact with DVC. We would snap all ties with DVC,” Banerjee said.

The West Bengal districts affected so far include Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, West Burdwan, and East Burdwan.

This is very unfortunate. The storage capacity of DVC’s reservoirs has declined over the years as the Centre doesn’t do proper dredging. Why should West Bengal suffer for this? Earlier they used to release water in lesser quantities. This year they have increased the release suddenly, she said while adding that she will launch a movement against this.

“All releases are according to the DVRRC recommendations which consist of representatives from West Bengal and Jharkhand governments, Central Water Commission and DVC. All protocols of giving prior intimations to the concerned authorities before release were followed. Every effort was made to avoid the synchronisation of dam releases,” said a statement issued by the DVC.

It said that it has been raining heavily since September 15 and all rivers are overflowing.
Meanwhile, the Tenughat dam also released 85,000 cusecs of water which compounded the problem. DVC has reduced water discharge from 2.5 lakh cusecs on Wednesday to 80,000 cusecs on Thursday.

In response, Jharkhand chief secretary L Khiangte and Avinash Kumar, additional chief secretary to chief minister Soren did not respond to any calls nor messages. The copy will be updated whenever the same is received.

Meanwhile, Supriyo Bhattacharya, spokesperson of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand, said the water is released per the laid procedure.

“All rivers in the state are flooding. There is a standard procedure for release of water if water level in the dams rose due to flooding. Any state would protect its people first. It’s also essential for safety for dams. Sealing the border, if at all it has been done, is no solution. That would impact them as well as it would affect transport of essentials to West Bengal from other states,” said Bhattacharya.