Left Front leaders and supporters of Murshidabad and Malda, the two districts which are located on the right and the left banks of the Ganga, respectively, took out a march and organised a demonstration in Farakka on Thursday over a slew of demands with regard to the erosion caused by the river.
Around 5,000 people, including the erosion victims, congregated at the New Farakka bus stand. From there, they started a procession and walked around 3km to reach the office of the Farakka Barrage Project Authority (FBPA).
“Ganga is a national river, and the Centre should declare erosion caused by the river as a national disaster. For years, the central government has been negligent in addressing the issue. This cannot go on,” said Md Salim, the state CPM secretary.
The CPM leader was addressing a public meeting near the FBPA office.
“The central and state governments will have to take the responsibility to prevent the erosion. Those whose land and houses were devoured by the river should be considered as land losers. Appropriate arrangements should be made for their rehabilitation,” he added.
Salim claimed that when the barrage had been built on the Ganga at Farakka, it had been decided that the FBPA would take up the tasks needed to prevent the erosion up to a distance of 50km upstream and 50km downstream.
“However, the authorities are evading their responsibilities. On the other hand, the state government is using sandbags to prevent erosion. Such lackadaisical attitudes of the barrage authorities and the state government are taking a toll on hundreds of people who are losing their houses and land,” he said.
The Left leaders who were present at the event also claimed that when their government was in power in Bengal, anti-erosion works were carried out in a much better manner.
After the meeting, a delegation went to the FBPA office and submitted a memorandum to officials. “If the barrage authorities and the central government do not act on the issues which we flagged today, we will launch an extensive movement,” the leader added.
Engineers transferred
Three important officials of the state irrigation department have been transferred from Malda at one go, when four of 15 blocks in the district are plagued by severe river erosion and floods.
It is being claimed by many quarters that the chief engineer (north), the superintendent engineer and the executive engineer of the irrigation department, who were looking after the erosion and the inundation issues, have been transferred together as people of the affected areas are disgruntled with officials for failing to address the dual problems of erosion and flood.
Other officials in the department, however, claimed that the transfers were “routine”.
According to sources, Gorachand Dutta, the chief engineer (north), Pradip Bhattacharya, the superintending engineer (north irrigation circle 1), and Shibnath Ganguly, the executive engineer (Malda division), have been transferred.
Three other engineers — Krishnendu Bhowmik, Diganta Maity and Suvankar Guria — were also shunted out.
Sabina Yeasmin, the minister of state for irrigation, said: “It may be a routine transfer. But I am not very sure about it and would prefer not to comment on the issue.”
Additional Reporting by Soumya De Sarkar in Malda