Six rain deaths in nine WB districts: Mamata

Kolkata: Six persons have died in heavy rains in nine West Bengal districts since 8 August, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informed the Assembly today and said the government was alert to the situation. Recalling that the state had witnessed a similar situation in 1978, Banerjee said her government was prepared to face any eventuality and the Damodar Valley Corporation has been asked to release water in a measured way. [caption id=“attachment_59119” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Villagers shift to safer places from their flood-hit Miki Village in Murshidabad. PTI”] [/caption] To a demand by RSP member Subhas Naskar for declaring the state flood-hit so as to get more Central assistance to meet the crisis, Banerjee said it required full data of flood-related loss of crop, dwellings besides figures of the affected and the marooned. She said in a statement in the House that there was adequate provision of relief and tarpaulins to help the affected. The Chief Minister said the state government would consider short-term and long-term compensation to the affected farmers and betel leaf growers. The state government would talk to the Centre in this regard, she said. Banerjee called for all-party meetings in the affected areas and urged all political parties to rise above politics to meet the situation. Banerjee also said her government had disbursed Rs 84 crore to the cyclone Aila-hit people which the previous Left Front government had failed to give. Commerce and Industry minister Partha Chatterjee said the rain-battered districts were Burdwan, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Hooghly, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas districts as well as Kolkata. Altogether 110 blocks, 1,625 villages and 40 municipal areas were affected by heavy to very heavy rains, he said. The minister said the crisis was compounded by excessive rainfall in adjacent Jharkhand which forced the DVC to discharge 60,000 cusecs of water. As a result, the lower catchments areas in Howrah and Hooghly were inundated as also some areas in Burdwan, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts. Till now, he said, 90,000 tarpaulin sheets, Rs 10 lakh in relief materials and 200 tonne of rice has been sent to the affected districts. PTI