CM's night at flood cell - Situation beyond our control: Mamata

TT, Aug. 2: Mamata Banerjee today officially declared that 12 districts had been affected by floods and 20 blocks in five districts had become "very vulnerable" and began a night vigil from Nabanna.

The chief minister, who entered the state secretariat at 4.40pm, was still there at midnight, monitoring the flood fallout. Sources said if the situation demanded so, she would stay the night there. The example was followed by mayor Sovan Chatterjee at the Calcutta Municipal Corporation headquarters.

"Heavy rainfall in these districts in one day, high tide in the rivers and flow of excess rain water from Jharkhand and Odisha into Bengal have led to this situation," she said after an hour-long emergency meeting this afternoon with the chief secretary, the disaster management secretary, the director-general of state police and other officials.

"The situation is beyond our control, and 48 hours of heavy rainfall has been predicted. I have been told that more water will be released from Jharkhand, adding salt to our wound," she said.

Mamata said 20 blocks in five districts were "very vulnerable".

"They are Kandi, Burwan and Bharatpur in Murshidabad; Dainhat, Rampurhat, Suri and Labhpur in Birbhum; Purbasthali, Nadanghat, Katwa and Mukteswar in Burdwan; Arambagh, Goghat, Khanakul I & II, Chanditala and Parsura in Hooghly; and Amta, Udaynarayanpur and Bagnan in Howrah.

"I appeal to residents of these areas to leave their homes and take shelter in relief centres for the next two days," the chief minister said.

Mamata has ordered additional chief secretary Gopal Yadav to visit Murshidabad along with inspector-general of police, south Bengal, Ajay Ranade, and minister Chandranath Sinha. IG (western range) S.N. Gupta and divisional commissioner Rajesh have been told to go to Birbhum. Minister Firhad Hakim is in Hooghly while his cabinet colleagues Subrata Mukherjee and Aroop Biswas are in West Midnapore and Burdwan, respectively.

"I, myself, am going to Ashokenagar in North 24-Parganas tomorrow afternoon," the chief minister said.

Senior officials are camping in the worst-affected districts, "where 47 municipalities, 210 blocks, 9,619 villages and 36,90,627 people have been hit", Mamata said.

"A total of 3.5 lakh people are already in relief camps," she said. "We are monitoring the situation constantly and a helpline - 1070 - has been started from today."

Referring to the release of water by the DVC, Mamata said: "I had told the Centre two years ago to dredge water from the reservoirs. If this had been done, at least an additional 2 lakh cusecs of water could have been stored."