Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee spent Sunday night in her office in Kolkata to monitor the situation across West Bengal in the aftermath of Cyclone Komen.
Incessant rainfall has submerged large parts of the state and five districts — Murshidabad, Burdwan, Birbhum Howrah and Hooghly — are still on high alert. Residents have been asked to abandon their homes for the next two-three days.
Banerjee said: “The situation is beyond control. The water released from Jharkhand and Odisha is leaving areas flooded. Water released from Damodar Valley Corporation has worsened the situation. We love them, but it does not mean that they will submerge the state.”
The chief minister also advised people in affected areas to take shelter in relief camps to avoid “untoward incidents”. “I know that it is difficult to stay out of home, but life is priority. So you must stay in relief camps for two to three days. I had said that there was 61 per cent excess rainfall in the state. Today, it’s 70 per cent.”
Officials say that 12 districts, 210 blocks, 47 municipalities and more than 9,691 villages have been affected due to the floods, causing the destruction of 58,000 houses and affecting close to two million people.
The state government has deployed the army and the National Disaster Response in the districts to rescue people from the affected areas. About 900 relief camps and 400 medical camps have been opened, 121 boats have been called to service and more will be deployed on Tuesday.
However, the opposition has slammed this nightlong vigil by Banerjee as a gimmick before the 2016 elections.
“Spending night at the state secretariat is nothing but gimmickry to tell the voters how concerned she is about the people. If she wanted to monitor the situation she could have done it from her house only. If water exceeds the holding capacity of the reservoirs then the authorities will release it and she won’t be able to stop it by staying awake all night,” Adhir Chowdhury, president of the Congress party state unit, said.
Even state officials expressed disapproval of the ways of the chief minister. Recently while touring a district, she had threatened to beat an officer “black and blue” when informed that the officer was not focusing on relief operations, but taking pictures of the submerged villages.
“If she [Banerjee] behaves this way, officers on the field will lose their confidence to take action,” said a senior official unwilling to be named.
Banerjee has refused to take help from the centre in the awake of the natural disaster and lost her temper when questioned about the decision. “Did they [Union government] help us during the landslide in Darjeeling? We are doing our best and in spite of [the] huge debt that the state government faces, we will provide relief to the people,” the chief minister said.
However, her attitude of not taking central funds has been questioned as the Union government is obligated to provide financial help to states during such natural disasters. “She is trying to portray herself as the one who is providing relief, keeping in mind political equations, ahead of the elections, which will only hurt the people as the state has limited funds,” said leader of the opposition Surya Kanta Mishra.