Rain toll climbs to 29 in Bengal
With two more deaths, the toll in rain-related mishaps across West Bengal rose to 29 on Wednesday even as some major rivers continued to flow above the danger mark. Altogether 26 lakh people in 14 districts have been affected by the heavy rain pounding the State for a week now and still continuing sporadically.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced after a Cabinet meeting that her government would give compensation to people who had lost their shelter in this calamity.
“While Rs.10,000 will be given for each house damaged totally, Rs.2,000 will be given for rebuilding partially damaged houses,” she said. Well over 166,200 houses have been damaged so far.
State Water Resources Minister Manas Bhunia alleged on Wednesday that lack of maintenance during the long years of Left Front rule had weakened the embankments and breaches were appearing regularly. He said his departmental engineers are monitoring the situation on an hourly basis.
Pointing that Ms. Banerjee had constituted a State Flood Commission to find out ways to control the devastation caused by floods, he said a meeting of the Commission had already been held where several ideas were discussed to limit the impact of the floods. Dr. Bhunia is the chairperson of the Commission.
District administrations have been asked to keep relief and rescue teams ready in case of breaches, Irrigation Secretary A. Chatterjee said, adding that District Magistrates have also been asked to move people from low-lying areas
He said discharge of water from different barrages was reducing gradually. The Damodar Valley Corporation had discharged 85,000 cusecs of water, the Durgapur barrage 90,000 cusecs and the Kangsabati barrage 15,000 cusecs.
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