West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee on Monday blamed the recent disastrous floods in North Bengal on water that was discharged by Bhutan and she demanded that Himalayan kingdom pay damages to the state and loss of lives due to the calamity. In a government show, Banerjee remarked, We have suffered because the water is falling down on Bhutan… Compensation of us they desire.
Banerjee paid visits to a number of relief camps in the Bamandanga region of Nagrakata in the Jalpaiguri district, which was one of the worst hit areas after a heavy rain on the 4 th of October. Several foothills and the upper parts of Darjeeling flooded and landslided extensively due to the torrential rains that rendered thousands of people homeless and took at least 32 lives. The floods have greatly affected the local infrastructure, agriculture, and property which have made the state government to take immediate relief action.
Mamata Banerjee returned to an old theme, urging the coordination across the borders, and pointing out that West Bengal must not be left out of the talks, when she mentioned the necessity of the creation of an Indo-Bhutan Joint River Commission. She further said that, in the pressure of the state, a meeting has been adopted on October 16 and state officials will be present there to discuss flood management and preventive action. Banerjee also accused the centre of having been cheating the state of sufficient financial aid to manage such natural catastrophes well.
Meanwhile, the crisis of floods has been enabled by the political conflict that exists between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The situation worsened when BJP MP, Khagen Murmu and MLA, Sankar Ghosh were allegedly attacked by a mob when they visited the Dooars area which had been hugely hit by the floods and landslides. Prime minister Narendra Modi criticized the attack on X saying it was pathetic, which was highly pathetic and indicative of what the TMC government did, that is, allegedly failed to do, in terms of law and order.
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