(From left) Chakraborty and Mohammed Osman Ghani Khan with members of the advisory committee. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, July 28: The general manager of Farakka Barrage today faced the wrath of Congress workers who accused the project authorities of poor flood-protection work in Panchanandapur.

The official was blamed in the presence of members of the advisory committee set up at the instance of Union water resources minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi to supervise the anti-erosion work. The committee had been here to inspect the anti-erosion measures undertaken by barrage authorities at Panchanandapur.

The authorities had built an embankment along a 1.8-km stretch of the Ganga and the work was divided into seven zones. The district Congress vice-president, Subodh Mishra, said the first, second and the third zones are dangerously prone to erosion.

?The quality of work has not been satisfactory at all. We feared the embankment was not strong enough and so asked the authorities to take special care, but to no avail,? said Mishra. ?The bank started eroding on July 14, confirming our worst fears. Since then, erosion has become a regular feature.?

?We found it very strange that the authorities started working below the water surface after monsoon set in,? alleged Mishra amid strong protests from Mohammed Osman Ghani Khan, the general manager of Farakka Barrage.

The one-sided allegation soon sparked off a verbal dual much to the embarrassment of the advisory committee members, who were on the same boat as Ghani Khan.

The inspection committee included zilla parishad sabhadhipati Gautam Chakraborty, district Congress president Rubi Noor, Congress MLA Mostaq Alam and an AICC member who is a close aide of Das Munshi.

The general manager claimed that his department had to work amid various obstacles, the main being the long distance between Malda and Jharkhand. Boulders for the project were brought in from Jharkhand and the supply remained suspended for 15 to 20 days owing to a strike in the neighbouring strike, he said.

?But despite all shortcomings, we completed the project by July 20, overshooting the deadline by only 10 days,? Ghani Khan said. ?We never flouted any rule and went according to the book.?

?Anyone can appoint any agency to check the quality of our work. We could not have been that incompetent after implementing anti-erosion measures for the past four years on a 50-km stretch along the Ganga, Bhagirathi and the Padma. The embankment starts from Jangipur in Murshidabad and goes on till Malda,? he said.

The general manager blamed the tremendous pressure of the swollen river for the breach along the embankment.

?It is a tough job to fight the swirling water of the flooded river. But we have taken it as a challenge. Certain people have conspired against us and are trying to misguide the minister,? he said.