West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of “perpetual river erosion” along the river Ganga- Padma in districts of south-central West Bengal resulting in severe loss of public utilities, private properties and agricultural lands. Ms. Banerjee urged the Prime Minister to kindly reconsider the decision of Farraka Barrage Project Authority (FBPA) of withdrawal of the extended jurisdiction so as to fulfill the earlier commitment of the Central government and arrange for taking up bank protection schemes in the entire stretch of the extended jurisdiction.
The Chief Minister pointed out that in 2005, the Ministry of Water Resources extended the work jurisdiction of FBPA from 40 km upstream of the Barrage to a further 80 km downstream for the purpose of undertaking anti-erosion and riverbank protection in the entire stretch. “ Moreover, surprisingly, the Union Ministry of Water Resources, by their letter dated 11th July 2017, unilaterally withdrew their earlier decision of 2005 and restored the original jurisdiction of FBPA from 11.5 km upstream to 5.9 km downstream of Farakka Barrage,” Ms. Banerjee wrote in the letter.
In her three-page letter dated February 21, Ms. Banerjee pointed out that the severity of the problem can be appreciated from the fact that almost 2800 hectares of fertile land has been engulfed by the river and there have been damages to the public and private properties to the tune of ₹1000 crore during the last 15 years.
