Murshidabad, 11 August (H.S.): After heavy rains across the state for the last few days, the rain has reduced a bit in the last 24 hours, but flood water from Jharkhand and Bihar has started flowing towards the lower basin of the Ganges river, due to which many villages situated on the banks of the Ganga and the Padma in Murshidabad district are facing the threat of severe floods. Apart from this, a large part of Bangladesh may also be hit by floods. With the rise in the water level of the Ganges river, Murshidabad district administration has issued an alert in many blocks including Farakka, Suti, Shamsherganj, Raghunathganj, Bhagwangola, Jalangi.

For the last two days, the water of the Ganges river has slowly started entering many villages of Suti, Shamsherganj and Raghunathganj in Murshidabad. According to the Farakka Barrage Project Authority, the danger level of the Ganga river in the dam area is 22.25 metres. On Sunday, the Ganga river was flowing at a height of 26.40 metres in the 'upstream' direction, i.e. towards Jharkhand, and at a height of 23.48 metres in the 'downstream' direction. According to dam project sources, most of the gates of the project have been opened since Sunday morning as a huge amount of water from Jharkhand started flowing towards the barrage. Water is being released there at the rate of 14.5 lakh cusecs.

After the Ganga river flows from Jharkhand to Murshidabad district, the Farakka Barrage officials control the level of water flow of this river towards Bangladesh. But the barrage officials do not have the power to stop the huge amount of water flowing towards the barrage from the 'upstream' direction. If the water pressure increases too much, the barrage can also break. According to sources, this is why the barrage officials have started releasing water at the fastest pace in the last 15 days. That is why the water level of the Ganga and the Padma rivers has started rising from Suti, Shamsherganj to Jalangi.

An official of Farakka Barrage Project said, 'The water level of that branch of the Padma river which enters Bangladesh through Suti, Shamsherganj has also increased considerably. Barrage officials have already warned Bangladeshi officials about releasing excess water.' On the other hand, as soon as Farakka Barrage officials started releasing water in large quantities, water has started entering Suti, Shamsherganj, Raghunathganj-2 and many other blocks of Murshidabad district. As new water is entering many areas including Laharpur, Shivnagar of Shamsherganj block, river erosion in the areas along the banks of the Ganga has taken a new and terrible form.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey