Kolkata: Amid the ongoing tussle between the Union and West Bengal governments on water release from the dams of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the Calcutta High Court on Thursday sought a report from the state government on the initiatives taken by it on compensation and rehabilitation of the flood-affected people in the state.
A division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Bivas Pattanayak has directed the state government to submit the report on the matter by October 3.
The direction to the state government came on a public interest litigation filed on the flood situation in the state.
The division bench has asked the state government to report on the situation in the three districts – West Midnapore, Hooghly, and Howrah – which are the worst affected by the flood.
Meanwhile, following the formation of the new low-pressure area in the central-western Bay of Bengal, certain districts in north Bengal, namely Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, and Alipurduar, have started witnessing heavy rainfall since Wednesday night.
In certain areas in the hilly terrains in north Bengal, landslides have been witnessed because of the heavy rainfall. Some of the districts in south Bengal are also facing medium to heavy rainfall since Thursday morning.
State government officials said that the formation of a new low-pressure area has created further problems for the administration, especially at a time when the flood situation in the state had started improving.
On Wednesday, red alerts were issued in three districts, orange alerts in five, and yellow alerts in ten districts of the state. Last Sunday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the decision to withdraw the state government representation from the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), holding the DVC responsible for the flood situation in West Bengal because of the release of water from their dams without prior intimation to the state government.
The BJP has described the decision as a ploy to divert public attention from the continuing public outrage over the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata last month.
–IANS