South Dinajpur rivers drying up because of Bangladesh: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday major rivers like Atreyi, Tulai and Punarbhava that are flowing into South Dinajpur from Bangladesh, are drying up because of construction of dams by the neighbouring country.

The statement comes exactly a week after Banerjee told the state assembly that she was opposed to the Teesta water-sharing pact.

The Centre is reluctant to sort out the issue, the chief minister alleged.

Replying to a query from RSP MLA from Khusmandi in South Dinajpur, Narmada Chandra Roy, Banerjee said in the assembly: “Bangladesh has constructed dams on different rivers that flow into South Dinajpur and it is not only causing floods during monsoon, even farmers are suffering from lack of water in the dry season. They are not allowing enough water needed for agriculture and as a result, people of South Dinajpur are suffering.”

“This is a bilateral issue and the Centre will have to intervene. If they raise the issue during bilateral meetings with Bangladesh, the problem can be sorted out. We had taken up the issue with the Centre several times, but they are reluctant to sort it out. I have spoken to Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi separately on the issue but they have always preferred to ignore the problem. They are taking the issue lightly,” the CM added.

Atreyi, Tulai, Punarbhava and Tangan are four major rivers that flow into South Dinajpur from Bangladesh. “Bangladesh has built dams on all these rivers and that has caused huge prob-lems for people of our distr-ict. The Bangladesh authorities are controlling the flow of the rivers. They are channelising excess water to India during monsoon and that is causing floods. But during summer, Bangladesh releases little water. There was sufficient water in summers even 10 years ago,” Roy said.

Roy added that the condition of Atreyi is worse.

The Atreyi river finds mention even in the Mahabharata. It flows from Bengal’s Siliguri into Bangladesh before flowing back into South Dinajpur district. About 390km in length, it is the source of livelihood for thousands of fishermen and provides water for irrigation for farmlands in a vast region of the district.