Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today hit out at the Centre for doing nothing to address the threat of floods in vast areas of north Bengal, which is facing a flood scare due to continuous rains there. In this contest, she asked the government officials, including the chief secretary, departmental secretaries, DMs to start round-the-clock monitoring.

The chief minister said, “There is a flood scare looming large in north Bengal. Most of the rivers are in spate due continuous rains. Moreover, the breach of embankments of Ganga and erosion of land continue to be a problem as the Centre had done nothing worthwhile and did not ever carry out dredging.” Miss Banerjee said,” The Centre had not paid us a single penny in this regard. We have been working sincerely and spending crores of rupees on the issue for years. Moreover, the Centre was trying to renew the Farakka accord without consulting us. Even considering the fact that it would share water to Bangladesh from the Teesta river, which hardly has any water now.

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Moreover, the setting up of 14 hydel power projects in Sikkim too is leading to water crisis in north Bengal.” She also spoke about opening more flood shelters to evacuate people affected by the floods. “About nine flood shelters are already in place in Jalpaiguri, where about 500 evacuees have been accommodated.

Then there is a fear of flash floods. Earlier, South Dinajpur used to be under water, but now we have been able to mitigate the problem there.” In this context, she even blamed the DVC, saying, “The DVC would in no way release waters without intimating us. We expect that the DVC would keep us in the loop by giving us a report on the issue of releasing waters on a dayto-day basis.