West Bengal News: West Bengal is currently grappling with severe flooding, primarily caused by the continuous release of water from the Tenughat, Maithon and Panchet Dams in Jharkhand. In response to the situation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee initially imposed a three-day ban on vehicles entering West Bengal from Jharkhand, starting Thursday.
This decision resulted in the sealing of Naka checking points across six districts along the Bengal-Jharkhand border, creating significant congestion. Vehicles, including trucks, formed a long queue stretching 25 to 26 kilometres, leading to considerable inconvenience for commuters.
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However, following ongoing traffic issues throughout Friday, the West Bengal government decided to lift the vehicle ban late that night. Police promptly reopened all Naka checking points, allowing vehicles to resume their journeys.
By around 3:30 AM, traffic began to flow again and by 10:00 AM, the situation at the checking points had returned to normal, alleviating the congestion that had plagued the border.
The flood situation in West Bengal improved on Saturday as there was no rain in the affected districts for the last 24 hours and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) reduced water release from the Maithon and Panchet dams. Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the DVC for flooding large parts of West Midnapore, Hooghly and Howrah by releasing over four lakh cusecs of water. She criticised the Centre for not funding the Ghatal master plan and warned of a protest against the DVC. The Central government, however, claimed that the West Bengal government had been informed prior to the water release.
The DVC confirmed releasing 10,000 cusecs of water from the Maithon dam and 40,000 cusecs from the Panchet dam since Friday night. In another development, junior doctors in the state, who had been protesting for 42 days, resumed work and set up a medical camp in flood-affected Keshpur, distributing medicines and relief materials.