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Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary wrote a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the deplorable flood situation in West Bengal saying that it is not the time to "shift blame to one another's shoulders".
"It is not time to shift blame to one another's shoulders and to be judgmental of the causes of the flood. Let us put aside the controversy over the "man-made" or "God-made" causes for the flood. It is time to rescue the affected brethren of ours, offer them food, drinking water and medicines forgetting all about our differences of opinions," Adhir said in his letter on Friday. The West Bengal Congress chief asked both the central and state governments to expand their disaster management resources to provide relief to flood victims. "The Union Government of India and the State Government are expected to stretch their respective disaster management resources to its maximum for offering relief to the flood victims," he said. The Congress leader asked the Chief Minister to pay "immediate attention" to the "alarming flood situation" in the state especially in the districts of East and West Burdwan, West Medinipur, Hooghly, Howrah, South 24 Parganas and Birbhum. More than 4 lakh hectares of agricultural lands in these seven districts have been damaged, Adhir said adding that the death toll in these districts has risen to 23. "In view of the above, you are earnestly requested to stand beside the flood affected people and help them in all possible means to fight the terrible flood situation," he requested. The cloudburst in North Sikkim and subsequent release of water resulted in an outburst in Lake Lhonak and a major breach in Chungthang dam. After that, more than 8000 cubic metres per second of water has been released from the Teesta barrage which has resulted in flood-like situations in the downstream districts of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar. Moreover, due to persistent low pressure over Bengal for the last few days resulting in heavy rainfall in south Bengal and Jharkhand, there has been a heavy discharge of water from various Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) barrages of Maithon and Panchet and reservoirs of Mukutmanipur. The districts of Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur and South 24 Parganas have been severely affected in this. (ANI)
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