Around 50 meters of the ring embankment at the Bhutni island in Malda gave way around 11 pm yesterday, leading to waters from the swollen Ganga river gushing into the Kesharpur Colony area.

The irrigation department is trying to build a temporary embankment of sandbags there to stop further losses, sources said. On the other hand, the district administration has already cancelled all leaves of employees of the block administration and irrigation department. A political debate has also started between the Trinamul Congress and BJP over the issue, and the parties did not miss the opportunity to attack each other. While the BJP termed it a result of the TMCs “cut money culture,” the latter charged the BJP of bringing in false allegations.

According to sources and locals, rain waters from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are entering the lower catchment area there, flooding village after village. “The Ganga and Fulhar rivers are swelling now and the former is flowing 0.17 m above extreme danger level, while the latter is about to reach danger level. Around 27 villages that has over 1000 people are feared inundated in Ratua-I and Manikchak blocks,” a source said.

The block administration has already started shifting people from Gadaichar and Narayanpurchar, while also readying the relief camps, it is learnt. Prakash Singh, a local of Bhutni, said, “Almost 50 meters of the embankment vanished last night in the water pressure and water started entering the villages. Urgent repair work is needed to stop further damage. It seems that boulders instead of sandbags should be used as the temporary barrier.”

According to the Malda district president of the BJP, Gobinda Mandal, it is actually a “boulder festival” that has been going on since 1971. “It was the CPIM and then TMC which have been looting the common man’s money. The
irrigation department and local TMC leaders are now happy that their time for making some money has arrived.

If proper care is not taken and the ring embankment collapses, almost one lakh people will be in distress,” he said. In a counter to this, Dulal Sarkar, the TMC district coordinator, said, “Flood is a natural disaster and the BJP is trying to politicise the issue. Actually, all that they are alleging actually happens in states governed by the BJP, while here the chief minister herself is with the common people.”

Malda District Magistrate Rajarshi Mitra said people in the waterlogged areas have been taken to relief camps. “The entire situation is under the scanner of the BDOs,” he said.