Bengal flood situation: 10,000 people rescued; guv to visit affected areas

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed concern over the flood situation in the state and said 10,000 people have been rescued and kept in 190 relief camps in nine districts in the southern and northern parts of the state.

Banerjee, who is recovering from a leg injury, said she is personally monitoring the situation from home round the clock and announced that the leaves of some government officials have been withdrawn as part of the measure to control the flood situation in the state .

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose will visit flood-affected districts in the northern part of the state on Thursday.

The northern part of West Bengal borders Sikkim, which witnessed a flash flood in the Teesta river, killing at least ten people, injuring dozens and leaving around 80 others missing.

Taking stock of the situation at a meeting, Banerjee asked Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and Home Minister BP Gopalika to immediately send a team of senior officials to the flood-affected areas of West Bengal.

“We have already rescued 10,000 people from low-lying areas in the districts. The SDRF and NDRF teams have already been alerted. “I will be monitoring the situation 24/7 from home with a leg injury that may need another week to recover,” she said.

A total of 5,800 people were evacuated in Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts in the northern part of the state, while 5,018 others were rescued in Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur, Purulia and Bankura districts in the south, the state government said in a report. rack.

Banerjee also directed Dwivedi to start a 24-hour control room where people could register complaints about the flood.

The NH-10 connecting Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, to Siliguri, the largest city in northern West Bengal, has been completely washed away near the Likhuvir-Setijhora stretch. Immediate repairs on a war footing will be undertaken once the water recedes in Teesta, the statement said.

The Chief Minister also said that adequate shelter camps have been opened in the state and urged the affected people not to take any risk and go to these shelters.

Twenty-eight relief camps were opened in the northern part of the state and 190 in the south.

“I am worried about Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri (in north Bengal). I have asked several senior ministers and IAS officers to rush there to monitor the rescue and relief operations. Close monitoring is being kept to ensure that no lives are lost in the disaster.” she said.

Governor Bose, who reached New Delhi from Kochi on Wednesday evening, will return to Kolkata early on Thursday morning and immediately travel to North Bengal to take stock of the flood situation there, a Raj Bhavan official told PTI.

Bose on Wednesday spoke over phone to governors of several neighboring states of West Bengal, including Sikkim, for better understanding of the flood situation.

“The Governor also sought details of the situation from West Bengal Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi about the situation and also inquired about the precautionary measures taken by the state government,” the official said.

The Chief Minister said parts of South 24 Parganas, Sunderbans and Sagar Island districts were also affected by the floods.

“The 24/7 Control Room at (State Secretariat) Nabanna is functional and can be reached via (033)22143526 and 1070. Another 24/7 Control Room (with numbers 1800-212-1655 & +91-9051888171) at the Tourism Department is functional. ..The state administration has also started integrated control rooms in all districts,” the state government said in the statement.

Senior ministers Partha Bhowmick, Arup Biswas, Udayan Guha, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chairman Anit Thapa and senior bureaucrats rushed to north Bengal to monitor the rescue and relief operations.

“More than 8,000 cubic meters of water per second has been released from the Teesta barrage, resulting in flood-like situations in the downstream districts of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar,” the statement said.

It said the formation of a low-pressure area resulted in heavy rainfall in south Bengal and neighboring Jharkhand.

Moreover, there has been heavy water release from DVC dams at Maithon and Panchet and Mukutmanipur reservoirs, affecting districts like Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur and South 24 Parganas.