The raging Ganga river has eaten away a portion of a primary school at the Narayanpur area in Manikchak in Malda, while also leaving a high school in Baishnabnagar are on the verge of being carried away.

Minister of State for Irrigation Department Sabina Yasmin alleged that the union ministry had been silent on the matter. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking all necessary measures to prevent erosion along the Ganga as much as possible. But the erosion of the Ganga is a national problem.

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The Farakka Barrage authority, a body under the Centre, is sitting idly. Ganga is taking away vast tracts of land right in front of their eyes in Manikchak and Kaliachak 3 blocks of Malda. Why are they not coming forward to prevent the breakdown?” she said.

Minister Yasmin expressed her anger and said that the people would respond to this “indifference” of the central government. It may be noted here that there has been massive erosion along the banks of the Ganga in Narayanpur area of Gopalpur village panchayat in Manikchak block in the last few days.

In the meantime, Minister Yasmin and district administration officials supervised the situation on the ground. Irrigation department engineers have also started work to temporarily stop the breach, it is learnt.

“An entire primary school building in Narayanpur Char area is slowly submerging in the Ganga, due to which panic has spread throughout the area,” a local man said. According to the local villagers, they feared that there will be no existence of Narayanpur village if the erosion continues.

“The way the Ganga is flowing, it seems that everything in the village will end now. We have requested the administration to prevent the destruction in the area at any cost,” a local said. “A lot of money is needed to permanently prevent the erosion in the Ganges.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has on her own initiative taken all sorts of measures to prevent the breakdown. Irrigation department engineers are working day and night to temporarily stop the erosion. The school in Narayanpur area, which is facing erosion will be seen as a place to make an alternative.

Similarly, a high school in Vaishnavnagar is in a dangerous situation. In this case too, there is a plan to build a school by looking at alternative places. But we want the central government to intervene to prevent the problem of erosion in the Ganga. It is because of their indifference that today’s situation has come up,” Ms Yasmin said.