Bengal govt withdraws representation in Damodar Valley Corporation

The West Bengal government has decided to withdraw its representation in the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), as communicated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The communication on this count has been through a letter dated 21 September, which was made available to the media from the chief minister’s Secretariat on Sunday.

The fresh communique was in response to a letter from Union minister of Jal Shakti C.R. Patil on 20 September, where the latter has argued that waters from DVC reservoirs are released on the basis of discussions of DVRRC, which has representation from the state government as well.

“As a protest against this apparent disregard for West Bengals’ concerns and lack of cooperation regarding flood moderation, my government is withdrawing its representation from DVRRC immediately,” her letter read.

In the letter, the chief minister also claimed that she disagreed with the argument of the Union government that Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) releases flood water in West Bengal in consultation with the state government.

In the fresh communique to the prime minister, the chief minister has claimed that all critical decisions, including the release of flood water, are taken unilaterally by the Central Water Commission and Union Ministry of Jal Shakti without arriving at a consensus.

“Sometimes, water releases take place even without notice to the state government and the requests and views of the Government of West Bengal (GoWB) are not honoured,” the chief minister’s letter read.

She claimed that the peak releases from reservoirs lasting for a prolonged period of nine hours are done only with three and half hours' notice, which, according to her, proves the absence of effective disaster management.

She said that in her understanding the peak release of 2.5 lakh cusecs of water from the DVC reservoirs could have been avoided, since according to her, evidence suggests that the Maithon and Panchet reservoirs of DVC are not allowed to encroach beyond the maximum flood management levels.

“It appears the dam managers failed to properly assess inflows and adjust outflows in advance of the flood,” her letter read.