Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to Narendra Modi on the ongoing erosion by the Ganga in Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia districts, requesting him to advise the Centre to ensure a detailed technical study involving all stakeholders and draw up an integrated plan to combat erosion in the Ganga-Padma river system.
The chief minister wrote that the Centre’s anti-erosion efforts were piece-meal.
She sought the Prime Minister’s intervention for budgetary provisions to protect the life and property of people in erosion-hit areas.
“In fact, the extent of erosion is so severe that the distance between the two banks of the rivers — the Ganga and the Fulhar — has come down to only 1.5km at Billaimari village of Manikchak block in Malda district, from its earlier distance of 4km recorded in 2004, thus posing serious threats to people of the adjoining villages and even to the safety of the National Highway 131A...,” Mamata wrote.
She cited a July response from Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to her concerns, where he said the Farakka Barrage Project Authority (FBPA) executed anti-erosion or river protection work amounting to Rs 342 crore between 2005 and 2019.
“However, it is noticed that the area is still suffering from severe erosion problems at several sites, including repeated erosion at the same site. As a result, it is clear that anti-erosion efforts have been attempted piecemeal, with no holistic approach taken,” wrote Mamata.
“There is, in fact, a need to take up permanent restoration work instead of such palliative activities. I would, therefore, request you to kindly advise the concerned department to conduct a joint study supported by suitable model analysis,” she added, asking Modi to include the governments of Bengal, Bihar, the FBPA, and the Ganga Flood Control Commission.
Mamata said the study would help find a sustainable solution to tame erosion and flooding in the upstream and downstream of the barrage and indicate required changes in the barrage gate regulation during monsoon.
The Ganga, which has Murshidabad and Malda districts on its right and left banks respectively, has been consistently gobbling up land in the absence of any major preventive work.
On Thursday, Mamata brought up central assistance under the Flood Management Plan, stating that the Centre provided no such assistance during the XI and XII Plan periods to address erosion in the Ganga-Padma system despite repeated requests.
“Nonetheless, we have undertaken some urgent bank protection works on our own at 31 identified vulnerable stretches (at a cost of more than Rs 168 crore) between 2017 and 2021,” wrote Mamata.
Additional reporting by Alamgir Hossain and Soumya De Sarkar
