A team of BJP MPs from Bengal who called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday raised the failure of the state government to officially notify the recent landslides and floods in the region as a “disaster”.

Raju Bista, the Darjeeling MP who was part of the delegation, said: “We also discussed (with the Prime Minister) the recent landslides and floods in the Darjeeling hills, Terai and the Dooars and the Bengal government’s refusal to officially notify them as a ‘disaster’ and non-allocation of SDRF funds for rehabilitation.”

The region was hit by a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in 2023 and by a series of landslides in October 2025.

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha, cutting across political lines, had also demanded that the tragedy be declared a “disaster”.

Anit Thapa, who heads the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), is the GTA’s chief executive. The BGPM is an ally of the Trinamool Congress. The demand to notify the floods as a disaster was also made by the CPM, BJP and Ajoy Edwards’s Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front.

Earlier, Bista had said the state administration’s inaction was “illogical” and had prevented the flow of central relief funds.

“Despite the scale of calamity, the state has refused to notify it as a ‘disaster’. Only after the state government officially notifies a disaster under Section 38 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 can the Centre provide further assistance,” Bista had said earlier.

At least 32 people were killed in the recent landslides across the hills.

The Darjeeling MP alleged that there was “no account” of the ₹5,900 crore disaster relief funds allocated to Bengal by the 15th Finance Commission from 2021 to 2026, of which 75 per cent comes from the Centre and 25 per cent from the state.

For the current fiscal 2025-26, Bista said, the state has ₹1,311 crore in its State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), with ₹983 crore from the Centre and ₹328 crore from the state.

“Even if 10 per cent of the SDRF for 2025-26 were used, about ₹130 crore could be mobilised immediately to support victims and rebuild infrastructure. Instead, the state is spending barely ₹10 crore after announcing ₹5 lakh for each death and ₹1.2 lakh for damaged houses,” Bista said.

Calling the state government’s stance “malicious,” Bista said: “By refusing to officially notify the tragedy a ‘disaster, the state government is trying to prevent allocation of funds and additional resources that are desperately needed to rehabilitate the people and fix the infrastructure across our region. This is nothing short of malicious.”

The MP further claimed that the disaster management and civil defence department of the state, which had received an allocation of ₹3,279 crore for the financial year 2025-26, had failed to ensure preparedness or mitigation in the hills and north Bengal.

“If even 10 per cent of that budget had been used in our region for disaster mitigation and response, ₹327 crore could have gone into immediate relief. It seems the funds have disappeared altogether,” alleged Bista.

Apart from the disaster issue, the other issues raised by the BJP team included the recent attack on BJP MP Khagen Murmu, the law and order in Bengal and the challenges faced by tea and cinchona plantation workers.