Bhubaneswar, Oct. 14: Orissa governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare today underscored the need for an independent body looking into the factors behind the floods that wreaked havoc in the state recently.

The remarks of the governor, made on the sidelines of a conference here, assume significance in view of his earlier suggestion for constitution of an expert committee to probe into the alleged mismanagement of the Hirakud reservoir, being rejected by the Orissa government.

Bhandare also called for steps to prevent floods and need for providing maximum possible help to the victims.

It may be mentioned that in the immediate wake of the floods, which claimed more than 40 lives in two spells, the governor, following persistent demand from the Opposition, had suggested that the Orissa government should set up a new expert panel to look into allegations that mismanagement of the Hirakud reservoir on the Mahanadi had caused the floods in the first phase.

The government wrote back to say that the existing committee on the Hirakud was competent enough to look into such issues and there was no need to appoint another panel. This, however, rattled the Opposition, which felt that the government should not have ignored the governor’s suggestion.

When the first phase of the floods hit the state, there were allegations that engineers managing the Hirakud reservoir had not followed the rule curve that guides the dam’s operation and released huge quantities of water on a particular day causing inundation in the downstream of the Hirakud.

There were also allegations that the engineers had failed to anticipate huge inflow into the reservoir from Chhattisgarh side following heavy rain in the catchment area of the Mahanadi. Moreover, they also did not have information about huge quantity of water being released from a particular dam in Chhattisgarh.