Taking to her X handle, the Bengal CM wrote, “Just now, I spoke to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren ji, and discussed with him the evolving flood situation. I discussed with him the case of sudden and huge release of water from Tenughat, which has already started flooding Bengal. I told him that Jharkhand waters have been flooding Bengal, and this is man-made! I requested him to please take care of this.”

She also wrote, “I have meanwhile been monitoring the situation and have spoken to all the DMs concerned in South Bengal as well as in North Bengal. I have asked the DMs to be particularly vigilant and take proper care of the calamity situation in the next 3/4 days. I told them to take all precautionary measures so that there is no untoward incident anywhere.”

On Saturday, Alapan Bandopadhyay, Chief Advisor to West Bengal CM, had also alleged that the DVC discharged water, leading to flooding in three to four Bengal districts.

He said, “The member secretary of the Damodar Valley River Regulatory Committee has informed that they will release another one lakh cusec of water. This would be catastrophic for the people of the state. There has been no discussion before releasing water with the state government. The state government has requested the DVC that such a large amount of water should not be released without any discussion. We are trying to find out if the water can be released in a staggered manner.”

He further said, “There is a possibility of flooding in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar in the next four to five days. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is monitoring the situation 24X7. She is holding talks with the chief secretary, additional chief secretary (irrigation and waterways), and principal secretary (disaster management), and has asked them to keep a vigil on the evolving situation.”

A senior state official said, “We know the DVC has to discharge water to save the dams but that should be done after proper consultation with all stakeholders. It cannot be one lakh cusec at one go.”

Contradicting the state government, BJP leader Jagannath Chattopadhyay claimed that the DVC informed the Bengal Government before releasing water.

He wrote on his X handle, “Misinformation campaign by ⁦@MamataOfficial⁩ on excess water release from DVC dams. After mutual consent received from WB Govt. DVC released water. It’s not man made flood, it’s ⁦@AITCofficial⁩ made lie. It shows inefficiency in governance.” He also shared the letter purportedly sent by the DVC to the state government informing it about the release of water from the Maithon and Panchet dams.

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