The swollen Koshi river alongside the Ganga has caused massive erosion in Bilaimari and Mahananda Tola areas in Ratua in Malda district. The destruction of the land mass is going on in an area of five kilometers, prompting residents of the area to start shifting to safer places, it is learnt. Villagers fear that seven villages may go under the river any moment.
While local residents of the area said that had not seen such erosion in the Koshi river in the past 35-40 years, they have complained that the administration has not yet started work to prevent more erosion in the area. “As a result, in order to protect the village from the river, the villagers are trying to stop the erosion by taking their own initiatives and throwing sandbags on the banks,” a local source said today. However, the locals claimed that it was not possible to prevent the larger breakage in this manner.
“The Ganga and Koshi rivers are literally attacking Bhutni,” the source added. It may be noted that the Ganga and Fulhar rivers have been in their devastating form in the past few days. In addition, extensive erosion has started along the banks of the Koshi river next to the Ganga and Fulhar.
“Several villages have been submerged, given the way the erosion is happening this year. The administration is also not doing any work to prevent the erosion. Therefore, villagers were forced to collect contribution and start work to prevent the river from eating away more land,” another source said. Bibi Mahela, a resident of the village, said, “Erosion occurs every year, and this year is no exception.
Everything is being washed away. However, there are no arrangements from the administration’s side. Where do we go now?” Amlan Bhaduri, the organizational general secretary of the BJP’s southern Malda, said, “If the state government cannot perform its duty of preventing erosion, it should hand the responsibility over to the Centre.
There is a minister of that department in the district, but no work is being done. It is the failure of the state government. People cannot trust them. Therefore, the villagers took their own initiatives to prevent erosion.” Ratua’s TMC MLA Samar Mukherjee, on the other hand, said that the principal secretaries are in touch with the district magistrate on video call to monitor the erosion.
“Erosion prevention work has started from today. But the Farakka Barrage Authority is actually to be blamed. The work is supposed to be done by the central government as the state can work with the limited powers.
The Ganga erosion prevention should be done by the Centre. The Farakka Barrage Authority is responsible for this. If they do not work properly, I will protest under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee,” he said.