Kolkata: Bengal‘s energy secretary, Santanu Basu, has resigned because the state’s consultant within the DVC board, and irrigation and waterways chief engineer Uttam Ray put in his papers as a member of Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), protesting in opposition to “unplanned and uncalibrated” water launch by DVC, inflicting floods in Bengal.
The back-to-back resignations, late on Saturday have been unprecedented within the central company’s 76-year-old historical past.They got here hours earlier than chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote to PM Narendra Modi, her second letter in as many days, disagreeing with the Jal Shakti ministry’s claims that the choice to launch water was carried out by “consensus and collaboration”, retaining Bengal within the loop.
The stand-off comes within the wake of south Bengal reeling below extreme floods. In keeping with state govt, 26 folks have died since final Friday, 18 lakh have been affected and a couple of.5 lakh have needed to be evacuated to shelters.
Basu despatched his resignation letter to the DVC chairman. “In view of the unprecedented and uncontrolled launch of water by the DVC from its dam methods, resulting in widespread inundation inflicting immense sufferings to the folks in huge areas of the state, I do hereby tender my resignation because the member of state from the board of DVC,” he wrote. Ray, in an analogous letter to the DVRRC member-secretary, mentioned he was “withdrawing his illustration” from the committee due to the “unplanned and uncalibrated” launch of water from DVC dams.
On Friday, in response to a letter Banerjee had shot off to the PM, Union Jal Shakti minister C R Paatil had written again, saying selections on water launch from Maithon and Panchet have been taken by a committee that included representatives from Bengal. The outcomes would have been catastrophic for Bengal if the water was not launched, he had added.
“I’ll respectfully disagree,” Banerjee wrote again on Sunday, including, “All crucial selections are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Fee with out arriving at a consensus. Typically water-releases happen even with out discover to Bengal govt and the state’s views and requests aren’t honoured.” The letter factors out that the water-releases, which befell over a interval of 9 hours, have been made with solely a three-and-a-half-hour discover to Bengal govt.
Banerjee argued that the choice to launch water was not consensual. On Sept 16, she had known as up DVC chairperson S Suresh Kumar, asking him to defer the water launch, she mentioned, including that Bengal govt didn’t consent to the height discharge of two.5 lakh cusecs of water. Additionally arguing in opposition to the logic of releasing 2.5 lakh cusecs of water, Banerjee mentioned the water-releases befell even earlier than the water ranges at Maithon and Panchet crossed the Most Flood Administration Ranges (MFML).
On Jan 8, 2021, water was launched by DVC solely when it had crossed the MFML, the CM identified, including that Paatil’s assertion — that the water releases have been finished to forestall a disaster in Bengal — was not “completely true”.
“As a protest in opposition to this obvious disregard for West Bengal’s issues and the dearth of cooperation concerning flood moderation my authorities is withdrawing illustration from DVRRC instantly,” the CM wrote to the PM. The CM additionally mentioned that it’s not doable for Bengal alone to implement complete flood administration plans in crucial river basins. The CM urged the PM’s “private intervention” to “handle these points urgently.”
“That is the primary occasion of a state board member resigning, regardless of the state dealing with higher-magnitude floods previously,” a DVC official later advised PTI. The present DVC board consists of seven members, together with one from Centre and one every from Bengal and Jharkhand. In keeping with norms, any board determination should be ratified by solely two out of three govt representatives. Bengal opting out is not going to instantly affect any decision-making, sources mentioned. DVRRC consists of representatives from the Central Water Fee, Bengal, Jharkhand, and DVC.
