‘We become anxious when it rains in Jharkhand’: Mamata targets Centre over DVC water release

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, currently on a two-day visit to the flood-hit regions of Purba Bardhaman and Birbhum districts, criticised the Centre once again on Monday over the ongoing release of water by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) from Maithon and Panchet reservoirs. 

She also took a dig at Jharkhand for discharging water without coordinating with West Bengal.

For over a week, the DVC has been releasing large volumes of water, leading to the flooding of more than 1,000 square kilometres across Purba Bardhaman, Birbhum, Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipur, and Paschim Medinipur districts, impacting over 5 million people. The situation has been further aggravated by Jharkhand’s disemboguing of water from its Tenughat Dam.

“It’s unfortunate that Bengal and Assam experience such severe flooding, unlike any other region. Bengal is the land of rivers. We become anxious when it rains in Jharkhand because they release water,” CM Banerjee told the press in Purba Bardhaman. 

She added, “The DVC is under the central government. But people's houses are submerged because the Centre is not doing anything. If I had received even a fraction of the money that’s spent on elections, I could have managed to stop the floods.”

The chief minister conducted an administrative meeting in the district to evaluate the state’s flood response, which has impacted the livelihoods of lakhs of people just before Durga Puja in West Bengal.

She directed the Public Works Department (PWD) to survey all damaged roads and instructed the Panchayat & Rural Development department to assess the affected houses. CM Banerjee announced that the state government would allocate funds for the construction of 11 lakh pucca houses, including those damaged by the ongoing floods.

The flood situation has again brought the centre-state tussle to the forefront with the Government of West Bengal claiming that the DVC at times doesn’t honour the views of the state and releases water without notifying it. 

The West Bengal chief minister had threatened last week to sever all ties with the DVC. 

CM Banerjee has already written two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling the crisis a “man-made flood”. She said the DVC’s discharging water in an “unprecedented, unplanned and unilateral” manner has resulted in the “biggest flood in Lower Damodar & adjoining areas after 2009”. 

In her second letter to PM Modi on Sunday, CM Banerjee claimed that all critical decisions of DVC are taken by representatives of the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Union Ministry of Jal Shakti “without arriving at a consensus”. 

In response, she announced that the state would withdraw its representation from the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC) which advises on water release and includes representatives from West Bengal, Government of Jharkhand, CWC and DVC. 

Shortly after her letter, Santanu Basu, Secretary of the West Bengal Power Department and the state's primary representative in the DVRRC, along with Uttam Roy, Chief Engineer (West) of the Irrigation and Waterways department, resigned from the committee. Basu also stepped down from his position on the DVC board.

Meanwhile, the opposition has accused the chief minister of unjustly blaming the DVC and the Centre for covering up the state’s failure in managing the flood situation. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, citing the resignation of West Bengal's representatives from DVRRC, rebutted the claim that the state's views were not considered while discharging water.