SAVE COOCH BEHAR !

Flood control cry in face of Torsha fury – Embankment protecting town not repaired in five decades

Cooch Behar, May 7: The embankment that protects Cooch Behar town from the swelling waters of the Torsha during monsoon has not been repaired for the past five decades, raising concerns about the safety of residents.

The embankment, built in 1955-56, is threatened by erosion and also by encroachments that have come up over the years.

"Illegal encroachment has resulted in the lowering of the height of the embankment and affecting its slope over the years. We know about the vulnerability of the structure and currently are carrying out a survey to get an idea of the estimated cost to repair it," said Manoj Acharjee, the executive engineer of the irrigation department. He, however, did not provide an estimate for the work.

The CPM sabhadhipati of the zilla parishad, Dilip Biswas, admitted that not much money was spent on flood protection. He said the district required Rs 10-12 crore a year.

"However, we get barely Rs 2 crore to work with. We need to get an increased allotment immediately. Other embankments are also equally threatened like the one around this town." Biswas added.

The Torsha flows along three sides of Cooch Behar town and each year, with the onset of monsoon, hundreds of people build shanties on the embankment to escape the fury of floods.

Sources in the irrigation department said like all the rivers meandering through the district, the Torsha, too, comes down from the Bhutan hills.

In case of heavy rainfall in the Himalayas, the waters become fast and dangerous. In 1993, the Torsha had breached its embankment and flooded neighbouring Alipurduar town in Jalpaiguri district, a source said.

The convener of Concern for Cooch Behar, a citizens' body, Debashis Bhaumik, said they had been crying hoarse for the past 15 years highlighting the condition of the embankment.

"The Cooch Behar palace is close to the river and with the deterioration of the embankment, the royal structure is becoming more and more threatened. We had formed the organisation to demand its protection but have failed to make any impact," Bhaumik added.

According to him, a commission had been formed after the Alipurduar calamity in 1993, which in its report clearly mentioned that the embankment here needed to be strengthened. "The district irrigation department had sent an estimate of Rs 1 crore to the North Bengal Flood Control Commission but nothing has been sanctioned till date," Bhaumik said.

Bhaumik said the old palace had been damaged several times in floods that affected the town. The "new" or the current palace was built by Maharaja Nripendra Narayan in 1887.

Tarun Lahiri, a retired schoolteacher, said the Torsha had broken its banks in 1954, inundating a large portion of the town. "It was then that the state government constructed the present embankment in 1955-56 to protect the town from the Torsha," he added. (THE TELEGRAPH, 8 May 2009)