Flood situation improves in West Bengal

Kolkata, Sep 21 The flood situation in West Bengal has started improving from Saturday with the water-level receding in different parts of the state, though several pockets in three districts continue to remain inundated.

These three districts where the plight of the local people because of accumulated flood water is continuing include Howrah, Hooghly and West Midnapore.

The administration expects the situation in these three districts to start improving significantly during the next two days unless there are fresh spells of heavy showers during that period.

The administration is depending on boats to ferry relief materials to these pockets in the three districts or to take patients from these pockets to the hospitals.

The medical camps opened at different places in the state are fully operational as the junior doctors, from Saturday, have withdrawn their cease-work in protest against the horrific rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last month.

The flood situation has started improving because of the two interlinked factors, the quantum of rainfall being reduced to almost nil during the last 24 hours which has helped Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to reduce lesser water from their dams.

There was a major war of communique between the state and Union governments on the issue of the release of water from the barrages of DVC.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Friday morning, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing DVC of releasing water in huge quantities from their barrages with giving prior intimation to the state government resulting into the flood situation.

On Saturday evening, the Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Paatil gave a reply to the Chief Minister refuting the allegations that DVC had released water without intimating the state government.

Union Minister Paatil, in his reply said that that the DVC dams are being operated by Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee, which is chaired by Central Water Commission and includes representation of Chief Engineers of the West Bengal government, Jharkhand government and DVC and the operations and regulation is done generally through consensus by this Committee in line with the laid down norms and guide curves.

Source: IANS