Bengal floods not DVC’s fault, but Mamata’s doing, allege BJP leaders

Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s accused the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) of triggering a “man-made flood” in South Bengal, the senior state leaders of the BJP have returned the favour by putting the blame squarely on the chief minister.

Addressing a joint press conference on Saturday, state BJP leaders including Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh, Rahul Sinha and Sukanta Majumdar said Banerjee was busy campaigning for the Bhabanipur bypolls to save her chief minister’s seat when she should have taken precautionary measures to tackle the flood situation.

“She is responsible for the floods. She was busy with the Babanipur bypolls in bid to hold on to the chief minister’s chair, while lakhs of people grappled with the floods,” Indian Express quoted Suvendu Adhikari as saying.

He accused Banerjee of diverting state money towards populist schemes aimed at the election, instead of using it to build embankments.

“Pre-monsoon work (repair of embankments), which takes place in February, March and April, was not undertaken this year as the funds for running repairs were diverted for ‘Lakhhir Bhandar’ (state-sponsored scheme aimed at providing income support to women). Rendered weak as the government did not direct funds to fortify them on time, the embankments were breached in the face of rain fury. It is not the DVC’s fault,” he added.

Banerjee on Saturday had lashed out at the DVC for the “indiscriminate” release of Damodar water to Bengal when it rains in the neighbouring Jharkhand.

Questioning why water was released in huge volumes instead of being released in phases, she asked Home Minister Amit Shah why he didn’t oppose the steps taken by the Centre-controlled corporation.

Responding to the allegation, BJP vice president Dilip Ghosh said the DVC has to release water when it reaches a certain level.

Also read: Mamata Banerjee wins Bhabanipur bypolls by record 58,389 votes

“She has her people in the DVC. What were they doing? She has been in power for 10 years. What has she done?” Ghosh told IE.

“Her visit, in the name of surveying the flood-hit areas, was nothing but a photo opportunity. There are two members from the state in the DVC committee. How could they not have been aware (of the release of water from the DVC)?” state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said.

Stating that the flood wasn’t man-made but of Mamata’s doing, senior BJP leader Rahul Singh asked why the chief minister didn’t take steps to mend the embankments in time when the MET office had predicted heavy rainfall.

“The embankments weren’t repaired. Her government wasn’t bothered about securing lives and livelihoods. The kind of rainfall that the state has experienced this year hasn’t been seen in the last 80 years. It is in her nature to blame others when she is at fault. I would like to request her to stop politicising the floods and stand with the people. She should convene an all-party meeting at the earliest and send an all-party delegation to the affected areas,” Singh said.

Defending the chief minister’s statement, senior Trinamool leader and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim said the sudden release of copious amounts of water was a “pre-planned” measure by the BJP to foil the steps taken by the government to fight rain-related problems.

“The DVC should have released water in small amounts. They released 1 lakh cusecs of water at one go, and, over the past few days, 5 lakh cusecs of water were released. There was no need for this. Is this not ‘man-made flood’? Is this because people didn’t vote for you? This sudden release of water at a time when we had managed to gain some control over the rain-related woes, is pre-planned,” IE quoted him as saying.