West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the Jharkhand government and alleged that the flood situation in the state has risen since Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is releasing water from its dam to save Jharkhand.
She ordered the sealing of the interstate border and stated that the Bengal-Jharkhand border would be closed for three days.
Accusing the DVC of the "man-made" floods in Bengal, she threatened to severe all ties with the corporation.
She also accused the government of failing to conduct dredging at the DVC dams, which led to the release of water and caused flooding in several districts of West Bengal.
In order to monitor the flood situation, Mamata Banerjee visited Panskura in Purba Medinipur district and Udaynarayanpur in Howrah district.
"This is not rainwater; this is water released by the government organisation DVC from its dams. This is a man-made flood, and it's unfortunate. Why isn't the Centre dredging the DVC dams, where the water storage capacity has decreased by 36 percent? There is a larger conspiracy at play. This cannot continue, and we will start a major movement against this," she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI in its report.
"The flood situation in West Bengal is because of DVC's unbridled release of water from its dams to save Jharkhand. We will not keep any ties with DVC," she added.
The Chief Minister alleged that there was a "well-planned conspiracy" to put Bengal in this situation.
"This has never happened before. I am in fear of what I have seen. We conduct meetings from time to time. I personally called the DVC chairman and requested him not to release too much water. In north Bengal, floods occur due to water from Nepal and Bhutan, and in south Bengal, it is mainly due to the water released from Jharkhand," she said.
She claimed that the DVC has released 5.5 lakh cusecs of water this year, triggering a flood situation in Bengal.
"Yes, it rained for 4-5 days, but we could have handled that. We have adequate infrastructure," she said.
