Bamboo frames that have been put along the bank of the Ganga in Bhutni to stop erosion. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, July 14: Senior district officials and politicians once again came face to face with angry villagers in Malda — this time on Bhutni island where the residents fear the embankment may give away any moment and render at least 1 lakh people homeless.

Hundreds of villagers surrounded district magistrate Rajesh Sinha and child welfare minister Sabitri Mitra when they arrived at 1pm yesterday and demanded to know what was being done to protect their island from the raging Ganga. It takes a 90-minutes drive from Malda town to Manikchak and then a river ride from Narayanpur ghat to reach Bhutni that covers 63 square kilometres.

The Congress pradhan of Bhutni’s Uttar Chandipur gram panchayat, Sital Saha, told the visitors that the irrigation department was not taking the erosion issue seriously. “They are dumping boulder-filled bamboo frames into the river for the past two days and it is not working. The work should have started before the rains came,” Saha said.

Usually soil and timber stakes are used to make an embankment but time has to be given for grass and trees to grow on it and make it stronger.

Saha said in the past two weeks, the river had eaten away about 100 metres of the land. The water is now lapping at the base of the 27-km long embankment.

“If this bund is breached, more than one lakh people will be homeless. The erosion is not new. It began last year and the irrigation department did nothing, despite being informed by us,” said Congress pradhan of Hiranandapur gram panchayat in the island, Sufal Mondol.

With the irrigation engineers in a spot before the minister and the district magistrate, Sabitri tried to placate the villagers. “Bhutni island has to be saved. We will ensure that everything is done to protect your land. I have asked the irrigation engineers to take all out efforts to protect the embankment,” the minister told the villagers.

The superintending engineer of the irrigation department, Sandip Dey, said chief engineer Tushar Kanti Ghosh had inspected Bhutni and given orders to protect the embankment with the bamboo frames. He said an estimate of Rs 80 crore to tackle the erosion effectively had been sent to the state government.

The district magistrate declined to say anything about the issue. “The minister has briefed you, I have nothing more to say,” Sinha said. This is not the first time that the DM had faced the people’s wrath. On July 5, Sinha was confined for 45 minutes in a Ratua village threatened by a raging river and a breached embankment. The incident had occurred a day after a BDO was made to walk on a slush village road in Habibpur to experience first hand rural life in monsoon.