South Bengal districts under flood alert after DVC releases 1 lakh cusecs of water from Maithan, Panchet dams

The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal Monday put seven districts of south Bengal on flood alert after 1,00,000 cusecs of water was released by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) dams downstream at 9 am. 

Water levels in several rivers of south Bengal began rising after the DVC started releasing excess water through its dams, officials said on Tuesday.

The district administrations were asked to set up control rooms and stack relief materials after the DVC started releasing excess water via dams.

DVC released 90,000 cusecs of water through Maithan and Panchet dams till 11:28am on Tuesday, Hindustan Times reported.

“On Monday, DVC released more than 1,20,000 cusecs. It controlled the flow on Tuesday since there was less rainfall in Jharkhand,” an irrigation department official said on condition of anonymity, the report said.

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“In south Bengal, water level in most rivers in East and West Burdwan, Birbhum, West Midnapore, Bankura, Hooghly and Howrah districts have risen.”

West Bengal chief secretary HK Dwivedi held a meeting with the district magistrates and asked them to be prepared for floods as there is heavy rain forecast till October 5 with a chance of very heavy rainfall on Tuesday.

The meeting was also attended by secretaries of Irrigation and waterways and disaster management departments.

State officials were asked to keep in touch with DVC authority and Jharkhand officials for water release from dams which might flood parts of Bengal.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had held a meeting with state officials on Saturday, and asked them to keep ready all relief materials. She also directed to operate a control room 24x7 at districts and subdivisions.

The chief minister also directed the officials for shifting people from low lying areas and asked officials to keep her posted about the inputs from districts every 12-hours.