Kolkata: Two senior officials of the West Bengal government has stepped down from their posts in Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) as chief minister Mamata Banerjee shot off another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rejecting his cabinet colleague's views over the DVC’s water release that she alleged to have caused flood in some districts of the state.
One of the two is Santanu Basu, an IAS officer posted as the state power department secretary. He wrote in a letter to DVC chairman S Suresh Kumar on Saturday, “In view of the unprecedented and uncontrolled release of water by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) from its dam systems, leading to widespread inundation causing immense sufferings to the people in vast areas of the State of West Bengal, I do hereby in protest, tender my resignation as the Member, West Bengal from the Board of DVC.”
The other state official is the chief engineer of the irrigation and waterways department. He resigned from the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee. Their exit from the DVC days after Ms Banerjee threatened to snap ties with the utility.
Incidentally, the CM sent her fresh letter to the PM also on Saturday. Earlier, union Jal Shakti minister CR Patil asserted that the state government officials were informed at every stage about the release of water from DVC reservoirs, which was essential to prevent a major disaster.
Ms Banerjee however alleged in her second letter, "I believe the Union minister’s statement that all efforts were made to minimize flooding is not entirely accurate. It appears the dam managers failed to properly assess inflows and adjust outflows in advance of the flood. Furthermore, I have been informed that there are ongoing maintenance issues at DVC dams, specifically the repair of five under sluice gates and one hydel gate at Panchet, which remain unresolved.”
She added, “While the hon'ble minister claims that the release from DVC dams was carried out by consensus and collaboration with the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee, including consultations with representatives of the government of West Bengal, I may respectfully disagree."
The CM also claimed, "All the critical decisions are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India without arriving at a consensus." She pointed out, “Moreover peak release from the reservoirs lasting for a prolonged period of nine hours were conducted with only 3.5 hours notice which proved insufficient for effective disaster management."
