Bengal Govt Issues Flood Alert for 7 Districts as DVC Predicts Heavy Rainfall

Since the Met department predicted heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), a central utility, in Jharkhand until October 5, the Bengal government has issued flood alerts for West Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, East Burdwan, West Midnapore, Hooghly, and Howrah.

"Whenever the DVC released additional water from the Durgapur Barrage, floods would hit the state in the past. Heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas of Maithan dam this time makes it likely that the DVC will release more water, according to a senior official.

Panchet Dam currently receives 73,000 cusec and 60,000 cusec respectively of water inflow.

According to a source, both of these dams released 1 lakh cusecs of water at 9 am on Monday. According to the source, if 1.5 lakh cusecs of water were released, it would be problematic for several districts downstream.

An official from the irrigation department stated, "The state has decided on precautionary measures as it is forecast that rainfall will continue in Jharkhand until October 5."

According to sources, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister, instructed officials to take the appropriate action since she did not want people to experience flooding before the holiday season.

According to a source, "the chief secretary held the meeting on Monday morning in accordance with the chief minister's instructions and requested the district magistrates of the seven districts to take appropriate action." This is due to the release of water from the DVC and other dams, such as Massanjore in Jharkhand.

Authorities' advised actions include the following:

People living in low-lying regions should be evacuated as soon as possible and sent to safer locations, such as flood shelters.

Sensitive embankments should be closely watched, and if a breach is found, action should be taken to make repairs right away.

In the event that a situation resembling a flood occurs, the districts should set aside enough relief supplies to handle the situation effectively.

To guarantee that all river embankments are monitored, executive engineers of the irrigation department should work closely with district administrations.

Authorities have allegedly been lax in the past over the holiday season, causing common people to suffer from floods, according to sources in the state administration.

"However, because the weather is threatening this time, the chief minister wants to keep the authorities on their toes. If floods hit Bengal prior to the Lok Sabha elections, she doesn't want to give the opposition any room to criticize the state's response, according to a source.