Flood situation remains critical in West Bengal

NI Wire

Kolkata

Fri, 20 Jun 2008: 

The West Bengal Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Friday termed the flood situation in Kolaghat, East and West Midnapore districts as the worst. Earlier, he had convened a meeting in Kolkata with state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Health Minister Surjya Kanta Mishra and Relief Minister Mortaza Hossain for scussing the flood crisis and relief and rescue work.

The state government has announced a relief package of Rs.6-crore for flood victims. “We have earmarked Rs 6-crore for relief operations in the flood-hit areas, Five hundred tonnes of rice have been allotted for distribution among victims while fifty medical teams have been sent to these areas,” said Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta.

Army and air forces personnel have been deployed in the relief operation in East Midnapore and West Midnapore districts, which have rescued around 1.5 lakh people in both districts while large scale population are still marooned. A total of 22 lakh people have been affected all over the state.

West Midnapore is the worst affected district where alone 16 lakh people have been affected from the flood. As many as 18 people have been declared dead while more than 15 lakhs including hundreds of travellers are marooned in 50 villages completely cut off from communication in the last three days.

According to West Midnapore district magistrate Narayn Swaroop Nigam, Sabang, Pingla, Narayangarh, Keshiari, Sankrail, Nayagram, Danton and Gopiballavpur blocks are the worst affected areas of west Midnapore district, while some remote areas of Sabong, Pingla, Narayangarh Keshpur areas have been cut off and no rescue operation has begun there so far.

Several rivers of the district have been overflowing surpassing the danger mark and some fresh areas of other districts have begun to affect. The water level in Keleghai River of Narayangarh is flowing much above the danger mark and has smashed a rail bridge near Bakhrabad in Narayangarh and floodwaters swamped tracks between Contai and Kharagpur. All trains to southern states have been cancelled for an indefinite period.

The Railway official in Kolkata informed that the train services between Howrah and southern India couldn’t be resumed for another three days. The lines are totally marooned.

The West Bengal government has alleged the Jharkhand government for this critical situation by accusing to not giving prior information to West Bengal government before releasing the 6.90 lakh cusec water from the Subarnarekha barrage within last 48 hours.

“We could not take any precaution because the Jharkhand government did not warn us. Our chief secretary has already taken up the matter with Jharkhand,” irrigation minister Subhas Naskar said. “The suddenly released water in huge amount has worsen the situation in continuous raining,” added Naskar.

On the other hand, the flood victims have alleged the state government for carelessness as they accused, “We hear that ministers are releasing relief funds. But why doesn’t the government spend some money to prevent the floods? We face floods in Maligram, Gobardhanpur and Jalchawk every year. There are three breaches on Chandia river embankment. But we know the government will never care to repair these breaches properly and we will face the same troubles next year.”

The Met office has informed that raining is likely to continue for next 24 hours. “Rainfall is expected to be fairly widespread in Gangetic Bengal. As compared to Kolkata, more rain is expected in East and West Midnapore and North and South 24-Parganas,” said the city Met office.