Residents of at least three riverside villages in South 24-Parganas’s Gosaba on Saturday took out a march with posters demanding concrete embankments, instead of relief material which, according to them, would be a temporary solution to recurrent inundation.
In the wake of Cyclone Yaas on May 26, when over 136 embankments were breached and more than 290 riverside and coastline areas submerged, demand for a permanent solution to the problem of displacement gained momentum in the coastal districts of East Midnapore, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas.
Sources said residents of Satjelia, Rangabelia, Lahiripur and Kumirmari at Gosaba in the Sunderbans had gone to the embankments of local rivers raising posters stating “Tran noi, concrete-er bnadh chai (Not relief, we want concrete embankments)”.
The protest lasted over an hour with the villagers declaring that they would “respectfully” decline relief material from henceforth unless the administration took up their demand for concrete embankments more seriously.
“If the embankment becomes stronger, there will be no flood. We will need no relief then,” said a Kumirmari resident, belying a tone of frustration with the administration’s apparent focus on temporary assistance rather than a permanent solution.
The levees made of earth and raw material dot riverbanks in the Sunderbans which is prone to floods perennially.
The demand for the concrete embankments in North 24-Parganas was also raised by members of several nature care organisations and villagers on the occasion of World Environment Day on Saturday when they took out a mangrove plantation drive in the Yaas-affected areas.
The demand has been raised from several pockets, including Ghoramara Island and Mausuni Island in Sagar, as well as other places like Kultali and Raidighi, over the past few days.
A group of villagers in Digha, East Midnapore, placed the demand for a concrete embankment before Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee when he visited the Yaas-affected people last week.
At several administrative meetings, chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her dismay over the apparently ineffective repair of embankments and asked officials to find a permanent solution. She told them that government money should not be “wasted” on fragile and futile repairs that needed to be repeated every year.
Opposition parties in the cyclone-affected districts have backed the local residents’ demand for the concrete embankments.
“We understand that this is a genuine and legitimate demand,” said a senior CPM leader.
CPM leaders said a plan to construct concrete embankment stretching 778km had first been proposed by an expert committee formed by the central government which had visited coastal areas in 2010, a year after the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila.
“It is not a new demand and it is better to concretise 778km of the embankments. The UPA 2 government at the Centre had provided funds of Rs 5,032 crore and the work had commenced. But it was halted and Rs 4,000 crore was returned because of delays. I personally sent letters to the chief minister and the state government to take measures for a permanent solution,” said Kanti Ganguly, a former CPM minister.
BJP leaders also supported the demand since lakhs of people residing in riverine or coastal belts were suffering every year.
“We want either concrete embankments or rehabilitation of the poor families from these areas,” said Palash Rana, a BJP secretary in South 24-Parganas’s Mathurapur.
Additional reporting by Subhasish Chaudhuri
