The DVC has opened its floodgates after the midnight hours and had informed Bengal government through in WhatsApp, senior officials claimed amidst state’s charges of giving ‘no prior intimation of the discharge today.

A bunch of districts in the lower Damodar basin faced devastation after the combined discharge by the upper dams crossed 2.5 lakh cusecs this afternoon, which, the state irrigation officials apprehend would cause the Durgapur barrage spillways to go for extensive ejection beyond 2.75 lakh cusecs, late this evening. This, as the officials apprehend, would cause devastation in the lower valley districts like East Burdwan, Hooghly and part of Howrah at a time when the festivities are on the cards.

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Member secretary, Damodar valley river regulation committee Shashi Rakesh said, “For dam safety, we’d to go for this sudden hike as the dams were not designed to tackle inflated inflow of such a degree, especially when Maithon alone received 2.20 lakh acre-feet inglow due to heavy rains in the catchment. At 1 am today, we’d no time in hand to inform each other individually but had posted this in the WhatsApp group.” At 7 am, a red alert was issued but at 5.30 am, the combined discharge from Maithon and Panchet was scaled up to 2 lakh cusecs, which further was enhanced to 2.5 lakh cusecs at 2 pm. The state, Shashi said, had urged not to escalate discharge in the night hours.