Malda, Sept. 2: Prasad Sen, a member of the Farakka barrage technical committee, today blamed the ring-bund ? built around Bhutni char in Malda during A.B.A. Ghani Khan?s tenure as the state irrigation minister ? for the wiping out of Panchanandapur.

Sen was in Malda to examine the recent flood protection work along the Ganga.

Armed with a map of the region in 1963 and a number of satellite photographs of the river, Sen explained to reporters how the ring-bund around Bhutni char had forced the Ganga to change its course and ultimately eat into Panchanandapur.

Earlier, the river used to bifurcate at the char. ?Later as the right channel of the Ganga became too narrow, a 25-km ring-bund was built across it in 1975,? Sen said.

?Since the Rajmahal hills were situated on the western bank, the water was forced towards the eastern side. The Ganga has shifted around 10 km towards the east over the past 30 years,? he said. The Ganga has changed its course in other places as well, as a result of which several islands have come up between Manikchak and Panchanandapur, ringing the death knell for Panchanandapur.

According to Sen, the unscientific approach towards controlling erosion and piling boulders along the banks over the past 25 years have been a major obstacle to the natural course of the river.

?To save Panchanandapur, the Ganga must be allowed to return to its natural course and for that the present ring-bund has to be dismantled,? Sen said. ?The bund should be rebuilt in such a way that the Ganga is allowed to flow easily.?

Sen is the head the three-member committee set up by Union water resources minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi to probe into the charge of corruption in the construction of an 1.8-km embankment at Panchanandapur.