Villagers having their meal in a water-submerged house due to the overflowing river Damodar and excessive water release from DVC Dam at Udaynarayanpur in Howrah on Thursday. (Photo: PTI, Abhijit Mukherjee)

Kolkata: The flood-like situation in the western and southern parts of the state worsened with the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) continuouly releasing water. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited daynaraynpur in Howrah district on Thursday afternoon and alleged that the flood like situation was “man made”.

Parts of  Hooghly, Howrah, Bankura, Birbhum and West Midnapore have been the worst affected with thousands of people rendered homeless and taking shelter in relief camps.

According to sources in the state secreteriat Nabanna, with heavy rain  and indiscriminate release of water from the dams since July 21 has contributed to the death of as many as 16 people. “Six people died being swept away in the tide, 4 died of wall collapse, 2 due to snake bite with 104 blocks have been affected,” an official said.  

“It has been a week since we have written several times to the DVC and also to the centre and urged them to release water in small quantities from barrages but they have simply ignored. Jharkhand is receiving more rainfall and the DVC is discharging huge amount of rainfall causing a flood like situation in the state,” Ms Banerjee told the reporters at Seoraberia in Udaynarayanpur.

A man running through heavy rains at Esplanade area on Thursday. (Photo: PTI, Abhijit Mukherjee)

The chief minister was apprehensive that the situation might deteriorate in some districts from Thursday night as the water discharged from the barrages would take two to three days to reach the districts. 

She instructed her chief secretary Moloy De and the district administration to take adequate measures and ensure that the people get relief material and food at the camps set up in the districts.

“Proper handling would have increased the holding capacity of barrages and  this could have checked the prevailing situation. However, the DVC had done nothing,” she alleged. The chief  minister announced that her government was embarking on a project of Rs 1,800 crore funded by World Bank that would control the flooding of the lower Damodar basin. 

After Udaynarayanpur  and Amta, she visited Khanakul in Hooghly where she held a meeting with the district administration officials and the senior police officers to take stock of the situation. The DVC had released  2,49,450 cusec water at 7 am. The number stood at 2,47,500 at 2 pm and 2,46,200 at 3 pm on Thursday. 

The DVC has claimed that they were decreasing the quantum of the release gradually. In the wake of the situation, state power minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee held a high-level meeting with the senior officials of his department instructing them to  put the special task forces on the high alert in all the districts. The officials have been asked to immediately disconnect the power in case of heavy inundation tp prevent electrocution.  The leaves of the power department employees have also been cancelled.