Malda flood menace alive

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 15: Though anti-erosion work has started on the left bank of the Ganges in Kaliachak by the Farakka Barrage Project (FBP) authorities, flood-combating measures are yet to be implemented in the region by the state government, officials said today. State irrigation officials said that owing to the Assembly election, not a single meeting could be convened in the last few months to discuss and chalk out flood-protection measures along the three-kilometre, unprotected zone on the left bank of the Ganges here. The committee formed for the Pagla river morphology study, headed by the district magistrate, could not convene any meeting to plan anti-erosion measures in the Panchanandapur belt where the Ganges converges with the Pagla. To check erosion during the high-flood period, it was decided to employ the river-linking process to some extent by permitting the water of the Ganges to flow through the Pagla. This way, there would be no obstruction in the flow of the Ganges’ huge water volume that caused severe erosion in the Panchanandapur zone in the past. Irrigation officials said the FBP has closed the mouth of the river Pagla at the place of its convergence with the Ganges for the time being.It was only last year that the officials allowed water of the Ganges to flow through Pagla , a tributary. The FBP authorities have also closed the mouth of the tributaries of the Pagla for dual purposes. This will serve as a link for villages that have remained isolated after the merger between the Ganges and the Pagla. District river experts said the FBP has not kept a sufficient spilling zone for flood waters of the Ganges here which may lead to severe erosion in this region, covering the upstream and down stream of the Ganges. The state irrigation department has spent Rs 24 crore for anti-erosion work on the three-kilometre stretch of the left bank of the Ganges last year. But the nearly 1.5 km-long bank protection work was eroded by the floods. This year, the FBP has allotted Rs 14 crore for anti-erosion work.