State suffered Rs 553 crore loss in floods, CM reports to Centre

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government submitted a report to the Centre about the loss of around Rs 553 crore suffered by the state due to this year’s flood, which has affected nearly 19 lakh people in West Bengal. State chief secretary Moloy De sent the report to the Modi government on Monday. The report focussed on the five districts which have been the worst affected by the flood. They are Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan East, Bankura and West Midnapore in South Bengal, sources said.

According to the report, while around 2.5 lakh hectare of agricultural land went under water, around 60,000 houses were either totally demolished or partially damaged due to the flood. The state government’s report to the Centre came close on the heels of its plea on August 4 that the Centre should declare the flood in West Bengal as a natural calamity and it must release a grant from the national disaster relief fund to compensate the losses. 

Sources indicated that the state government had around `300 crore under the head to initially meet the losses due to the flood. The next day, a high-level meeting was held at Nabanna, the state secretariat, where the district magistrates (DM) of the flood affected districts were asked to send their reports about the loss to the state government through video-conferences within a day.

After the DM’s reports were received, the total loss was estimated and mentioned in the report sent to the Centre, sources elaborated. Meanwhile, the state agricultural department will train farmers on how to plough the land in wake of the devastation. They would be taught about farming of vegetables and crops in a short time.