Disaster management minister Javed Ahmed Khan visited the flood-hit areas of Burdwan West in Asansol today and said that a quick response team has already been formed.

Four people have died, about 15,000 people marooned and over a thousand of houses have been flattened in Burdwan West. He also held a high level meeting today at ADDA guest house in Asansol in which state law minister Moloy Ghatak, chairperson of board of administrators of Asansol Municipal Corporation, Amar Nath Chatterjee, District Magistrate, Burdwan West, S Arun Prasad, CP, Neelkanth Sudhir Kumar, ADM ( General), SDM ( Sadar) and other top officials were present.

Water level is receding fast today as rainfall has almost stopped since last night. Asansol has recorded the highest ever single-day rainfall with 435.5 mm yesterday. Ghatak alleged that the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is responsible for the flood situation as they have released about one lakhs cusecs of water from its Maithon and Panchet dams without consulting the state government.

“We will soon hold a meeting with the top officials of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) with this issue,” Ghatak added. Talking to The Statesman, Prasad has said that the concerned departments have already started assessing the losses in the district due to the inundation.

A police control room has also been opened for distressed people in flood-hit areas. A number of bridges upon rivers have been damaged due to the inundation. Ghatak further added that the PWD engineers have been instructed to repair the damaged roads before the festive season begins in a war footing manner.

Markets and local bazaars in Asansol town have opened today and buses and auto-rickshaws also plied on the roads as the oldest industrial town of the state is trying to fast return back to normalcy. The local people of Asansol have demanded cleaning of the Garui Rivulet which has been primarily responsible for the inundation at Kalla and Railpar areas. Train services have also been disrupted.

Water is flowing above the danger level in most of the rivers. It will take a few more days to return back to normalcy, if no further rainfall occurs, said an IMD official. Irrigation department officials said that today morning about 2,14,000 cusecs of water has been released from the Durgapur barrage. There has been flood-like situation in Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan West, Birbhum and Bankura district.

The DMs of all these districts have been alerted by Nabanna already. Yesterday, senior IAS officer Rajesh Pandey visited Asansol and assessed the flood situation on directives from the state government. So far water has been
released from Maithon, Tilpara, Panchet, Mukutmanipur, and Durgapur Barrage due to heavy rainfall because of cyclone Gulab.

About 2,000 mm of rainfall has been reported in Panchet and Maithon dam areas of DVC in the upper catchment area of River Damodar.