West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday explained why she attended Durga Puja carnival at Kolkata on Sunday even after getting news of devastating flood in North Bengal.
“This is being unnecessarily politicised. Carnival is Bengal’s pride. Many guests used to come from our country as well as from foreign countries. All clubs are waiting. And what we would do reaching on Sunday evening at North Bengal? What is the priority then, rescue operation or giving security to VIPs?” Said Mamata Banerjee.
CM criticised BJP
Without naming the mob-attack on BJP MP Khagen Murmu’s convoy, she said, “In the name of VIP. Some leaders are coming with 30 car convoys or 40 car convoys. That basically not only hampers rescue operations but also damages roads both in hill areas as well as in plain areas. I strictly told the police not more than three cars will be there with my convoy.”
She also said, “I can say from my experience that, outrage of people always comes out when you meet them after a riot or flood. People are in deep stress then because they lost everything. You should console them. If you go with a 30 car convoy, they will show their outrage on you.”
Why North Bengal flood happened?
She also explain why this flood occurred in North Bengal. She said, “It has rained 300 millimeters in 12 hours here. I have heard Four dam in Bhutan completely shut down. Those dams have no water. All water has been released. 56 rivers have released water. There are 14 hydropower plants in Sikkim. Water is not flowing for them. There is no water in the Teesta in summer, it is dry. And in the monsoon, the Teesta floods. Thousands of people have also drowned in Florida. Earthquakes are more common in the mountains. There are mountains and forests here. There has also been a lot of damage to the forests.”
She also explained, “I had a meeting with the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police at 5 am on sunday. When Goutam (Dev) Gautam is reporting at 9 am, seeing that the police, fire department, health, everyone is on the spot. That is, the emergency department was all on the spot. Primary requirement after a flood is to rescue stranded people. They were in panic, the main job of the administration to assure them. We reached North Bengal within 36 hours of the incident.”
She also said, “They have been given 24 hours to resolve the matter. There have been many cases where it has been seen that the mother has died, the children are alive. There are 6-7 such cases. If we had come at that time, they would have been busy with me. We don’t want the administration to be busy with me. At that time, to overcome the helpless situation, we had to solve the problem with a very cool head. So we talked as much as we could. We talked to 21 families.”
Mamata informed that, she will stay at North Bengal upto Wednesday afternoon. “I will return back to Nabanna (Kolkata) on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday I will go to Kharagpur to attend a factory inauguration of Birla. They took my date one month before. Then after two-three days I will return back to North Bengal.”