Soz (top) and Sarkar: Ready for the rendezvous?

Malda, Aug. 6: Bengal ministers have questioned the work — despite which the banks of the Ganga continues to be eroded — being done by the Farakka Barrage authorities.

Parliamentary affairs minister Sailen Sarkar said today that when the state government allowed the barrage authorities to work on preventive measures along the 120-km stretch of the Ganga in Malda and Murshidabad districts, it had expected the erosion to stop.

“The work in preventing the damage of the river’s banks at Panchanandapur has also been done by the barrage authorities. When they took up the project last year they told us that the erosion would end, but we have been experiencing just the opposite,” Sarkar said.

He said the barrage engineers had assured them that they would use technically-improved methods to tackle the erosion.

“They said the method they had adopted had proved successful for controlling erosion of the banks of the Damodar, but all this talk has come to naught and people along the banks are living in fear,” the minister said.

Sarkar informed that on August 10, he and three other ministers along with 25 MLAs would be in Delhi where they will meet different Union ministers to discuss the several problems being faced by the state.

“I and state irrigation minister Subhas Naskar will meet the Union minister for water resources Saifuddin Soz and tell him about our grievance and the work done by the Farakka Barrage (a central government agency),” Sarkar said.

Ghosh alleged that despite pointing out to the engineers that the erosion at Panchanandapur was taking place below the water level, work was done on the surface.

“The Rs 18 crore that was spent on Panchanandapur alone, was a complete waste of money,” Ghosh alleged.

The general manager of Farakka Barrage, Osman Ghani, said the engineers were inspecting the damage and work was being undertaken on an emergency basis.

Sarkar said Soz would be asked to facilitate an independent probe to ascertain whether or not the money was unwisely used.

He said transport minister Subhas Chakrabarty and food and supplies minister Paresh Adhikary were the others who were going to Delhi with their grievances.

“We are also going to submit memorandums to Lalu Prasad and Pranab Mukherjee,” Sarkar said.