KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after visiting the flood-affected areas of the states, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday seeking his intervention for drafting a plan to upgrade dams in the region.
Describing the flood as a “manmade one”, Banerjee held “unprecedented release of water from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) dam” responsible for the flood situation. Banerjee said 16 persons died in the flood and lakhs of farmers lost their livelihood.
She wrote that shortly the state government would be sending damage assessment report to Delhi for the PM’s kind intervention.
“I would reiterate the need to develop holistic and long-term solutions in respect to augmentation of storage capacity of the DVC system to ensure that West Bengal is spared the regular devastation and suffering from manmade floods perpetrated by huge releases from the DVC dams,” she wrote in her four-page letter.
Earlier in the day, the PM had called up Banerjee to express his concern about the flood situation in the state and assured her of central assistance.