1. Mamata Banerjee criticized Jharkhand for worsening Bengal’s flood situation.
2. She blamed the Damodar Valley Corporation for releasing water to protect Jharkhand.
3. The Chief Minister ordered a three-day closure of the interstate border.
Kolkata, Sep 20: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticized the Jharkhand government on Thursday, blaming it for the worsening flood situation in Bengal, which she attributed to the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) releasing water to protect Jharkhand.
In response, she ordered the closure of the interstate border for three days.
Mamata accused the DVC of creating “man-made” floods and threatened to cut ties with the corporation.
She highlighted the failure to conduct necessary dredging at the DVC dams, which has diminished their water storage capacity by 36 percent, leading to significant flooding in several districts of West Bengal.
To assess the flood situation, she visited Panskura in Purba Medinipur and Udaynarayanpur in Howrah.
“This is not just rainwater; it’s water released by the DVC. This is a man-made flood, and it’s unfortunate. The Centre needs to address the dredging issue at the DVC dams. We will initiate a major movement against this,” she stated.
Mamata alleged a “well-planned conspiracy” aimed at putting Bengal in this predicament, emphasizing that such floods have not occurred before.
She mentioned her direct communication with the DVC chairman, urging him to limit water releases.
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While acknowledging rainfall over the past few days, she insisted that the state has the infrastructure to manage such conditions without the added stress from Jharkhand’s water releases.
She noted that the DVC had released 5.5 lakh cusecs of water this year, significantly contributing to the flooding in Bengal. “We could have managed the rainfall; it’s the excessive water from Jharkhand that exacerbated the situation,” she concluded.
