Rally resents delay in river restoration

shetpur, north 24-parganas: the chief minister’s do-it-now message has not reached here. come monsoon and the two lakh villagers along the banks of the bidyadhari will lose their crops, hearth and home in floods like every year. the havoc caused by the previous floods and repeated deputations by the local people have not been able to shake the government out of its slumber.the discontent was palpable in the huge gathering at the bidyadhari sanskar sangram committee conference on sunday. dredging of the river and removal of the bheris that interrupt the flow of the river and the brick kilns that manipulate the deposition of silt and extract it unscientifically, have not yet been taken up seriously. saukat ali was once a flourishing farmer. today his lands have become large waterbodies as the floodwaters have no place to drain out. the sides of the 72-km-long bidyadhari are dotted with similarly formed bils. with no crops to make his living, ali now leases out his mango trees to make ends meet. similar is the story of farmers of 48,500 acres of prime agricultural land that once yielded three crops a year. akbar was a fisherman. the fish he caught from bidyadhari was enough to run his family. the canal-like river today does not yield much catch. so, he is forced to work for as a labourer in a brickfield. “who wants to engage in this slavery? you slept peacefully while the river dried up and the fish stopped coming. now you come to balm our wounds,� he bursts out, mistaking the reporter for a government official. as early as 1960, river expert kapil bhattacharya had suggested that proper restoration of bidyadhari was required immediately to save nadia and 24-parganas from sure death. the estimated cost of the project then was rs 42 crore. many times the amount has gone under water but the authorities have been sitting on the report for more than 40 years. both the pwd and the irrigation departments have agreed that the beliaghata main road bridge in east kolkata should be removed to facilitate the flow of the river. there are seven bridges along a 35-km stretch, slowing down the flow of the already trickling water. this is increasing siltation and reducing the depth of the river. 250 brickfields are playing havoc with the natural drainage. still new ones are being set up after all promises of their removal. within a few kilometers below the rail bridge, the river has changed direction 22 times. the sanskar committee had submitted a scheme for regeneration of the river to the irrigation department. it suggested that the obstruction below the bridges be removed. after a lot of tussle on who would do the work, rs 1.60 crore was sanctioned to the irrigation department. rs 18 lakh is said to have been spent so far to remove the concrete and bamboo structures. however, during low tides it becomes evident that only the tops of the barricades have been removed. “the work done is worth hardly rs 2 lakh,� alleged rani biswas of the sanskar committee.