WITH CHIEF Minister Mamata Banerjee blaming Jharkhand and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for the grim flood situation in south Bengal, and barring entry of commercial vehicles from the neighbouring state at three border points, the Centre Friday wrote to her, saying the state was kept in the loop about the release of water. It said the water was released to avoid any “catastrophic impact” in south Bengal due to possible dam failures following heavy rain.
Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Paatil wrote to Banerjee, hours after she shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterating that the DVC — a multi-purpose river valley project involving the Centre, West Bengal and Jharkhand — released water in an “unplanned and uncoordinated” manner, causing the floods that has affected at least 5 million people. She also threatened that her state would sever all ties with the DVC if the issues were not resolved.
Touring the flood-affected areas on Thursday, Banerjee had said that she had called Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren – an ally in the opposition INDIA bloc — as well as DVC authorities, requesting them not to discharge water to West Bengal. “If they want to release water, they should give intimation. They can also discharge water slowly. But instead, they discharged 3.5 cusecs of water without informing us, which is unprecedented. To save their state (Jharkhand), they planned to flood Bengal,” Banerjee had alleged.
Later, West Bengal barred commercial vehicles from entering the state at three border points for three days, citing the flood situation – a move largely seen as a protest. Since Thursday evening, a large number of trucks remained stranded at three border points of Duburdihi in West Burdwan, and Bhalagora and Balarampur in Purulia.
As truck operators associations protested the move, the state government lifted the restriction Friday evening. A senior home department official said, “We stopped the trucks because of the flood situation. The situation improved and we allowed the vehicles.”
Earlier in the day, the ruling JMM in Jharkhand slammed Banerjee for blaming the state. At a press conference in Ranchi, JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said, “The DVC has cleared the issue… the decision to release water was taken jointly by the water resources departments of West Bengal, and Jharkhand as well the technical expert committee of the DVC. The mental condition of Mamata Banerjee is not right and that is why she is levelling allegations against the Jharkhand government. And that is why she stopped freight trucks on the border…”
In her letter to the Prime Minister, Banerjee said the amount of water released from the DVC dam system was unprecedented. “I would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that as a result of an unprecedented, unplanned and unilateral release of an enormously huge volume of water at nearly 5 lakh cusec from the combined system of Maithon & Panchet dams owned and maintained by the DVC, all districts of South Bengal viz Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Birbhum, Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipore and Paschim Medinipore have been plunged into devastating floods causing severe miseries to the common people. This huge quantum of discharge from the DVC dam system has never happened in the past…,” she wrote.
“The state is now facing the biggest flood in Lower Damodar & adjoining areas since 2009. More than 1,000 sq km of area stands affected and nearly 5 million people of the state have been drawn into the vortex of miseries for loss of crops, damage to public infrastructure & private assets; including houses, cattle etc,” she wrote.
“I am compelled to call it a man-made flood, a situation engineered by sheer neglect and turning a blind eye to sustained requests from the stakeholder and long-suffering state government like us to address the technical, mechanical and managerial issues concerning the DVC system…” she wrote.
Banerjee said “information of such critical conditions of the downstream rivers, already flowing close to or above the Extreme Danger Level, was provided to the DVC authorities by the concerned officials of the state government, along with the request of deferment of release made from time to time… Also spoke with the DVC Chairman on the night of September 16.” However, the discharge of water shot up over the next three days, she said.
The DVC has a network of four dams — Tilaiya and Maithon on Barakar River, Panchet on Damodar river and Konar on Konar river.
The Chief Minister said “the need for dredging and desilting the DVC reservoirs to restore their floodwater holding capacity” has been highlighted at various meetings with the Centre in the past 10 years. “Unfortunately, no visible action has been taken on the ground,” she said.
“Moreover, we have repeatedly raised the issue of the Ghatal Master Plan with the Centre, including the submission of detailed technical papers.Yet, no concrete steps have been taken by the Central government, resulting in Ghatal suffering its worst flood situation in recent memory,” Banerjee wrote.
“If this unilateral approach continues…, we will be left with no option but to disengage entirely from DVC and withdraw our participation,” she wrote. “We cannot allow this ongoing injustice to affect our people, year after year.”
“I earnestly request that you give this matter serious consideration and direct the concerned Ministries to address these issues as a top priority, including the sanction and release of substantial Central funds to undertake extensive flood management works…,” she wrote.
In the evening, Union Jal Shakti Minister Paatil, in his letter to Banerjee, said the water was released to “avoid any catastrophic impact” in south Bengal due to possible dam failures following heavy rainfall on September 16-17.
He wrote: “I am informed that Maithon and Panchet reservoir are being operated by a Committee, namely ‘Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee’ (DVRRC), which is chaired by Central Water Commission, and includes representation of Chief Engineers of Government of West Bengal, Government of Jharkhand & DVC. Further, the operations and regulation is done generally through consensus by this Committee, in line with the laid down norms and guide curves.”
“I am further informed that on account of heavy rainfall in south Bengal and on request from West Bengal officials, release from the two reservoirs was initially curtailed to almost 50% during 14th to 17th September, 2024. However, due to very heavy rainfall on 16th and 17th September, 2024, by early morning of 17th September, 2024, it became imperative for the Committee to substantially enhance the releases in order to avoid any catastrophic impact in south Bengal due to possible dam failures,” Paatil wrote.
“Even during this event, though the maximum inflow to the two reservoirs is estimated to be 4.23 lakh cusec, the combined releases from them was regulated to about 2.5 lakh cusec, that too for the minimum possible time.”
“I also wish to bring to your kind attention that as per usual practice, during this period also, the management of the reservoir levels, flood cushion and releases was done by consensus and collaboration by the DVRRC, at each stage consulting the representative of West Bengal…,” he wrote.
Paatil said the DVC has a transparent information dissemination system in place, where information on releases is shared with all stakeholders in real time, to ensure availability of maximum response. Further, highest priority is being given to proper surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of dams, including management and control of floods, Paatil said.
“As far as your concern on de-siltation of the two reservoirs is concerned, preliminary studies have indicated that this may not be techno-economically viable. However, DVC is in the process of taking up comprehensive sediment management in the region, to manage inflow of silt in these reservoirs,” he wrote, assuring the Chief Minister of “full cooperation”.
Later at night, Governor C V Ananda Bose wrote a communication to the Chief Minister, seeking to defend the DVC. According to a source in the Raj Bhawan, the Governor in his communication said, “The districts of South Bengal viz. Bankura, Birbhum and Paschim Medinipore do not fall in the Damodar Valley river system. The inundation in these areas is due to the extreme rainfall conditions over Kangsabati, Silabati and Dwarakeshwar rivers and huge releases from Mukutmanipur dam of Kangsabati river which has breached protective embankments and caused devastating floods. Here DVC is not the concerned authority.”
With inputs from ENS, Ranchi
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