Whiff of politics in govt flood relief - Mamata sends ministers to affected areas

Parts of Mayapur town in Nadia close to the Ganga inundated on Friday.
Picture by Pranab Debnath Our Special Correspondent

TT, Calcutta, July 31: Mamata Banerjee today deployed her trusted lieutenants to oversee relief work in south Bengal districts facing a flood-like situation, a move being seen as an effort to strengthen Trinamul's grip on the area and keep the Opposition away from "relief politics".

The chief minister held a meeting of the disaster management committee and announced that ministers Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Purnendu Basu and Aroop Biswas would look after the relief operations in south Bengal districts.

"The ministers will look after the relief operations in the districts where floods or flood-like situations have been reported. They will ensure that relief operations are undertaken properly," Mamata said after the meeting.

The move, senior officials said, was initiated to address two issues.

First, the chief minister doesn't want to allow the Opposition to raise its voice against "faulty" relief operations ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls. Second, Mamata is against giving the Opposition parties a chance to reach the affected areas and help people.

"These are the reasons why she has tasked her trusted aides with overseeing the relief operations. The ministers are experienced enough to handle such situations. It is clear that she is not ready to take any chances even though major floods have not taken place in any district and the threat perception is not that high," a senior official said.

According to some officials, Mamata had taken a leaf out of the book of the Left Front, which had deployed ministers in the districts to tackle the flood in 1978.

This had given the then ruling party a strong foothold in the rural areas.

Mamata, who cut short her London trip by a day and returned to Calcutta yesterday in view of a cyclone prediction, made it clear that she would not allow the Opposition to extract mileage out of the situation.

"Don't try to do politics with du mutho chire (handfuls of puffed rice). Don't put up hurdles in relief work. The government is there to undertake relief operations," the chief minister said, in an apparent reference to BJP leader Rupa Ganguly's visit to relief camps in North 24-Parganas, yesterday.

A cabinet minister who has been given the responsibility to oversee relief operations in a district said: "If we allow the Opposition parties to reach the affected areas, they would definitely allege that the government has failed in carrying out relief operations. We, the senior ministers, will ensure that no such thing happens in the districts," he said.