Malda, Nov. 23: The new 10-km-long embankment, under planning by the irrigation department to protect the Panchanandapur area here from further erosion, will isolate 15-odd villages whose residents will be left to the mercy of the raging river next monsoon.

Talks of establishing a new embankment, the ninth one, to save the district from the onslaught of floods surfaced after the night of September 4 when the department’s showpiece bungalow, the Ganga Bhavan, was eaten away by the river from which it got its name.

The new wall of earth will be 300m wide and rise over a height of 26m, costing the government Rs 15 crore.

The embankment is most likely to come up between Mohanpur-Ghaskhole in the Englishbazar police station area and Balukhara village in Panchanandapur.

What is worrying is that if the wall is constructed, it will leave villages with over 50,000 people on the “wrong” side of the embankment. This means, settlements like Panchanandapur, Bazarpara, Ghaskhole, Sakullapur and others will be left to the mercy of the floods next monsoon.

Irrigation department sources said the embankment would be built about one-and-a-half km away the river. The plan was discussed today at a meeting in the Circuit House between irrigation minister Amalendralal Roy, food processing minister from Malda Sailen Sarkar, top irrigation department officials, including department secretary Alokesh Dasgupta, and district magistrate Ashok Bala.

Talking about the resistance to the embankment likely to put by the villagers, the ministers and department officials have decided that the district administration would consider the opinion of local people and their political representatives before the work commenced.

This year, over 184 hectares of land was destroyed by the floods.

The two ministers today surveyed the areas between Bhutni island and Manikchak that were battered by floods and erosion earlier this year. The ministers were told by irrigation department engineers that the embankment at Bhutni had weakened and was in danger of being breached. Some 100,000 residents of villages lining the river were endangered, they added.

Chairman of the zilla parishad Gautam Chakraborty urged the ministers to release the funds allotted by the state government for rehabilitation work in the district. “More than 6,000 families have lost their homes and property and are living their lives in abject poverty. Nothing has been done to rehabilitate them because of the absence of funds,” said the Congress leader.

“The Centre should come forward and help us tackle this erosion problem. We, as a party, had also placed a demand for rehabilitation of the flood-affected people but adequate funds did not come,” Sarkar said.