At a time when the Union jal shakti ministry and the West Bengal government are engaging in a war of words over release of water from dams in Jharkhand, the management of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has decided to donate the salary of one day of its employees to the chief minister’s relief fund in wake of the recent floods in the state.
Rajesh Kumar, senior general manager of DVC has issued an internal notification on 23 September urging its employees to donate the basic pay of one day’s salary to the CM Relief Fund.
“If any employee is unwilling to donate then he or she has to inform the concerned authority by today. The donation will be tax free, under the 80 G section of Income Tax Act,” the notification states.
CM Mamata Banerjee has held the Centre responsible for releasing huge quantities of water to Bengal without seeking consent from the dams and reservoirs of Jharkhand. She even claimed that the heavy rainfall and subsequent water release from Jharkhand is responsible for floods in 10 districts of south Bengal and not the rivers and dams of the state.
Already, two top officials of the West Bengal government, power secretary from the DVC board and the chief engineer, irrigation and waterways (west) have resigned from the DVRRC five-member committee.
The DVRRC is responsible for water release from DVC dams and consists of members of West Bengal & Jharkhand governments, CWC and DVC.
The DVC was set up in 1948 under a special act of parliament and is the first multipurpose river valley project in Independent India with the purpose of soil conservation, flood control, irrigation, fish cultivation and hydel power generation.
The DVC Karmachari Sangha has appealed to the Bengal government to reconsider its decision of withdrawing two state top officials from DVC board and DVRRC committee.
The DVC had reduced its water discharge from the Maithon and Panchet dams after the resignation of the two top officials.