Malda, Aug. 28: The irrigation department today blamed Farakka Barrage authorities for the severe erosion wrought by the Ganga.

Superintending engineer Basudeb Dey today lodged a complaint with the district magistrate that the situation had deteriorated because of the barrage authorities? decision to keep the lock-gate shut.

?We had pointed out the problem to the barrage authorities time and again. But they paid little importance to what we said. After a while we stopped pleading with them,? Chowdhury said.

According to Dey, the barrage authorities decided to close the lock-gates after erosion started at the Simultala village.

?The pressure of the water cannot be checked and the pressure shifts to Panchanandapur,? Dey said. Eighteen lakh cusec of water is flowing there every second.

?The width of the Ganga is nearly 7 km at Manikchak. Naturally, the devastation at Panchanandapur is so high,? Dey said.

District magistrate Abhijit Chowdhury said the charges made were ?serious?. ?I have asked the irrigation department to inquire about the lock gate operation of the barrage authorities and report to me. Once I get the report I shall take up the matter with the state government,? Chowdhury said.

On the other hand general manager of Farakka Barrage Mohammed Osman Ghani denied the charges.

?We cannot operate the lock gates at our will. The officers of the central water commission take the decision. Actually the anti-erosion work undertaken by the irrigation department was of very poor quality. If the work is inferior it is bound to collapse,? he said.

Ghani alleged that the irrigation department was merely passing the buck to hide their incompetence.

Incidentally, the irrigation department spent over Rs 24 crore this year to construct a 3-km embankment to guard against erosion.

Ghani said there had been minor erosion at Simultala and his department would repair that. ?The irrigation department need not be worried about Simultala. We have also worked at Panchanandapur. There had been no complaints about the work done by us,? an angry Ghani said.

Executive engineer Pundarikaksha Roy said a 65-hectare piece of land had been eroded at Panchanandapur last year. ?Like other years, we have been carrying out protection work this year too. We have hardly lost 10 hectares of land this year. The figure bears out the work we have done for Rs 24 crore.?

Meanwhile, district authorities are worried over the prospect of the Ganga merging with the Pagla due to a constant increase in the water of the Ganga. The Ganga is running at 25.08 m while the danger level is 28.30 m.