West Bengal floods: Mamata Banerjee may write to Centre to declare deluge a national disaster

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is likely to write a letter to the Centre to declare the recent floods in West Bengal a national disaster. According to a senior state government official, a review meeting on the flood situation in 14 districts of the state is likely be held at the state secretariat on Saturday in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. [caption id=“attachment_3531435” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] After that a letter is likely to be sent to the BJP-led Central government to declare the current flood situation in West Bengal as a national disaster and release funds, the official said. “The Central government has released funds for Gujarat but it’s almost the same situation here in our state. So we will also demand from the Centre to declare it as a national disaster and release funds,” he said. The Centre has already declared funds for flood-hit states of Gujarat and north east including Assam but nothing has been declared for West Bengal. “West Bengal has been neglected. Despite so many districts flooded the Centre is not doing anything. We demand for our people,” he said. Incessant rain along with water released from different barrages of the Damodar Valley Corporation flooded around 14 districts in West Bengal in which 50 people lost their lives and nearly four lakh hectare of agricultural land was inundated.