Flood woes in Bengal man-made : Mamata

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told the assembly today that the present flood situation in Gangetic West Bengal had been primarily caused by relentless discharge of water by DVC and was becoming increasingly a "man-made" phenomenon.

Making a statement in the house, Banerjee said that although there had been rain the situation had been aggravated by disproportionate release of water by DVC which had inundated 4.22 lakh hectares. The flood woes in Gangetic Bengal is increasingly becoming a "man-made" phenomenon.

The flood this year has affected more than 1.67 lakh persons, who are now taking shelter in relief camps and the government is providing adequate relief materials to the affected, she said.

She said that water discharge from DVC dams was in excess of that in 1978 which saw an unprecedented flood in the state. So far 2.78 lakh cusecs of water had been discharged by DVC.

"Now 48 people have died and this is really serious," the chief minister said adding she had met union power minister Piyush Goyal under whose administrative control DVC is, the prime minister and union home minister and apprised them of the problems of water discharge by the DVC dams.

As Jharkhand was at a higher altitude, water release from that state was causing sufferings in Bengal, she said and urged all political parties to unitedly protest against the water discharge by DVC .

West Bengal government was dredging the canals and had spent Rs 2000 crore in constructing irrigation embankments but there was also a need to dredge the DVC barrages and dams to raise water holding capacity, Banerjee said.

There will be more rain in August and September and there was still scope for more water-logging, she added.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)