Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she had never seen such a volume of rainfall in Calcutta before Tuesday and blamed several factors, mainly to do with natural causes or the BJP-led Centre’s utilities, for the calamitous situation in the metropolis and accused the Opposition of politicising the disaster.
“I condemn any and every political party that is trying to make political gains at the expense of this disaster. They are misguiding, misinforming with their lies, instead of standing by the people even amid such a calamity,” said the Bengal chief minister.
“It is being sort of implied that nature is in our control, that we could have done something to rein in this act of nature… There is a limit to (our) civility. We could have said many things when Uttarakhand or Delhi or Mumbai drowned, but we don’t,”
she added.
A scooterist tries to navigate the road amid knee-deep water in Calcutta on Tuesday. Subhasish Chaudhuri
The Trinamool Congress chief — in several media interactions during the day, including with ABP Ananda — said she was in constant touch with Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim, chief secretary Manoj Pant and the top brass of the state police, and was monitoring and micro-managing every aspect of the crisis mitigation exercise since the downpour started drowning vast swathes of the city.
“I had never seen rain like this… unprecedented. I feel so bad for the people who have lost their lives.… Whoever can stay home must stay home, today and even tomorrow,” said Mamata.
“(Centre-controlled) Farakka is not dredged properly, so every time it rains in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand… Delhi, everywhere (else in the Gangetic plains), there is waterlogging. This time the rain is highly unusual,” she added. “Why wasn’t Farakka dredged properly? Please answer…. The water from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is coming into our Ganga (Bhagirathi-Hooghly) because of silt accumulation. If the Ganga’s water-holding capacity decreases, then where will we drain the water from Calcutta?”
She said her government managed to have 5.5 lakh ponds dug, to ensure Bengal could handle its own water.
“But nobody can stop the water from entering Bengal from outside. On top of that, this year, the monsoon has been relentlessly going on for four to five months. Summer and autumn have also merged with the monsoon. Durga Puja has also come forward…. All in all, this is causing the suffering of the masses,” said Mamata.
“More water will come. There will be more waterlogging. There is a high tide in the Ganga from Mahalaya…. The Centre has taken away our money through GST… and all our own funds are going towards dealing with these natural calamities, as the Centre does not help out at all.”
Ruing the loss of lives from electrocution, the chief minister demanded that the families be adequately compensated and given jobs by the CESC, adding that the state, too, would do everything possible to help.
The chief minister also blamed the Metro authorities (also reporting to the Centre) for the delay in draining water.
“Sand and various other construction materials are dumped day after day for Metro work. Drains are blocked by them. They, too, will have to take responsibility,” she said.
Later in the day, she issued a statement, asserting every effort was being made to restore normality in Calcutta and its neighbourhood.
“The state was already flooded because of the unilateral release of water by the DVC (another central utility), all rivers and canals were in a state of chaos. A lot of water is coming from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh through the Farakka Barrage; there was a problem because there was no dredging there. On top of that, this sudden heavy rain arrived,” said Mamata.
“Saving people is the primary task now,” she wrote on X, adding that a control room was opened at Nabanna, from where she was overseeing the processes. The control room’s 24x7 numbers, she wrote, are +191-33-22143526/22535185, and +91-8697981070.