Flood weary stage a stir

Statesman News Service
MIDNAPORE, Aug. 30: A few hundred flood victims organised a demonstration outside the offices of Midnapore West district magistrate, zilla parishad and the superintending engineer of the irrigation department yesterday.
However the demonstration was not so much for flattened rice, jaggery and tarpauline sheets as much for taking permanent measures to prevent recurring floods in Midnapore West and East.
The agitation was organised by the Midnapore district Bannya-Bhangan-Khara Pratirodh Committee leaders who blocked the Midnapore Raniganj state highway for an hour at Midnapore Collectorate gate. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the SE (irrigation), additional district magistrate (general) and the zilla parishad karmadakshya in support of their 12-point charter of demands.
Their demands include immediate implementation of the Ghatal Master Plan,Kelegahai-Kapaleswari-Bagui River Basin Drainage Scheme, Subarnarekha Barrage Project, completion of the Dubda Basin Scheme work, restraint on senseless discharge of water from the Kangsabati Dam, desilting of rivers and proper repair of the ex-zamindary and river embankments.
Committee secretary Mr Panchanan Prodhan said foundation of the Ghatal Master Plan was laid in 1982 and that of Keleghai-Kapaleswari Scheme in 1994 and the Subranarekha Barrage Project in 1993. But all of them are still in cold storage of the state government while millions of people have been losing lives, property and livestock to floods every year over the past three decades, he alleged.

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