2 Bengal officials resign from DVC over water release row

KOLKATA: Bengal's power secretary, Santanu Basu, has resigned as the state's representative in the DVC board, and irrigation and waterways chief engineer Uttam Ray put in his papers as a member of Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), protesting against "unplanned and uncalibrated" water release by DVC, causing floods in Bengal.
The back-to-back resignations, late on Saturday were unprecedented in the central agency's 76-year-old history.They came hours before chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote to PM Narendra Modi, her second letter in as many days, disagreeing with the Jal Shakti ministry's claims that the decision to release water was carried out by "consensus and collaboration", keeping Bengal in the loop.

The stand-off comes in the wake of south Bengal reeling under severe floods. According to state govt, 26 people have died since last Friday, 18 lakh have been affected and 2.5 lakh have had to be evacuated to shelters.
Basu sent his resignation letter to the DVC chairman. "In view of the unprecedented and uncontrolled release of water by the DVC from its dam systems, leading to widespread inundation causing immense sufferings to the people in vast areas of the state, I do hereby tender my resignation as the member of state from the board of DVC," he wrote.
Ray, in a similar letter to the DVRRC member-secretary, said he was "withdrawing his representation" from the committee because of the "unplanned and uncalibrated" release of water from DVC dams.
On Friday, in response to a letter Banerjee had shot off to the PM, Union Jal Shakti minister C R Paatil had written back, saying decisions on water release from Maithon and Panchet were taken by a committee that included representatives from Bengal. The results would have been catastrophic for Bengal if the water was not released, he had added.
"I may respectfully disagree," Banerjee wrote back on Sunday, adding, "All critical decisions are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Commission without arriving at a consensus. Sometimes water-releases take place even without notice to Bengal govt and the state's views and requests are not honoured."
The letter points out that the water-releases, which took place over a period of nine hours, were made with only a three-and-a-half-hour notice to Bengal govt.
Banerjee argued that the decision to release water was not consensual. On Sept 16, she had called up DVC chairperson S Suresh Kumar, asking him to defer the water release, she said, adding that Bengal govt did not consent to the peak discharge of 2.5 lakh cusecs of water.
Also arguing against the logic of releasing 2.5 lakh cusecs of water, Banerjee said the water-releases took place even before the water levels at Maithon and Panchet crossed the Maximum Flood Management Levels (MFML).
On Jan 8, 2021, water was released by DVC only when it had crossed the MFML, the CM pointed out, adding that Paatil's statement — that the water releases were done to prevent a catastrophe in Bengal — was not "entirely true".
"As a protest against this apparent disregard for West Bengal's concerns and the lack of cooperation regarding flood moderation my government is withdrawing representation from DVRRC immediately," the CM wrote to the PM.
The CM also said that it is not possible for Bengal alone to implement comprehensive flood management plans in critical river basins. The CM urged the PM's "personal intervention" to "address these issues urgently."
"This is the first instance of a state board member resigning, despite the state facing higher-magnitude floods in the past," a DVC official later told PTI.
The current DVC board consists of seven members, including one from Centre and one each from Bengal and Jharkhand. According to norms, any board decision must be ratified by only two out of three govt representatives.
Bengal opting out will not immediately impact any decision-making, sources said. DVRRC includes representatives from the Central Water Commission, Bengal, Jharkhand, and DVC.