CAG report reveals lapses in West Bengal’s flood management

Issues in planning, monitoring, non-utilisation of funds, and even quality of materials used flagged by performance audit

A performance audit on the implementation of flood control measures in West Bengal by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has revealed lapses in planning, monitoring and the even quality of materials used in flood control works. West Bengal is one of the prime flood-prone areas in the country with 37,660 sq. km. which is 42% of the total geographical area that’s susceptible to floods. The report pointed out that during the period 2013-17, the value of damage caused by floods to crops, houses and public utilities was ₹43,997.27 crore, the average annual damages being ₹8,799.54, which is much higher than the all-India average of the last 60 years.

The audit report, which was tabled in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly last week, also refers to non-utilisation of funds for flood management. “As per the Budget Publications, I&WD [Irrigation and Waterways Department] could not spend ₹1,099.45 crore during 2013-14 to 2017-18, though provisions of the fund was made through the Revised Estimates (RE) of the State government. Despite availability of funds, 2,161 sq. km. of the total flood prone area of the State remained unprotected as per the Annual Flood Report 2017 of I&WD,” the report said.

The audit report refers to two major flood management schemes in West Bengal — the Kandi Master Plan (KMP) and the Kaliaghai-Kapaleswari-Baghai (KKB) project. The report said: “Progress of the work was not monitored effectively. It was observed that both the projects [KMP and KKB] were delayed and vulnerable areas remained prone to floods.. Monitoring mechanism through remote sensing techniques was not adopted for any schemes of Flood control.” The audit also points out that there is no system of real time compilation and dissemination of flood data in the I&WD, even though data on river water levels is collected on an hourly basis in the monsoon season.

Flood management in West Bengal remains a critical issue and in October 2021, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pointing out that the annual problem of floods in south Bengal requires “short-term and long-term measures”.  The Chief Minister had described the floods due to discharge of water from reservoirs as “man-made floods”. Large areas of West Bengal, particularly lower parts of the Damodar basin and coastal parts of the State were inundated twice in 2021 affecting the lives of millions of people due to floods, which were triggered by excess rainfall and extreme weather events.

Work on the Kandi Master Plan that consists of the entire Bharatpur-I, parts of the Khargram, Burwan and Kandi blocks in the State’s Murshidabad district, was taken up in June 2012. “Against the approved project cost of ₹438.94 crore an amount of ₹209.32 was released and spent during the years 2013-18. Out of total amount spent, GoI [Government of India] has contributed only ₹24.98 crore (12%) instead of ₹157 crore, mainly due to delay in submission of utilization certificate by the State Government,” the audit report said.

For the KMP, the report points to defects in the detailed project report (DPR) and various deviations from the DPR, such as non-execution of embankment protection in vulnerable stretches, less countryside slope, less height of the embankment than the actual requirement, less thickness of boulder pitching work, among others. “Due to these deviations, risk of the infirmities of embankments cannot be ruled out, which could adversely impact flood control arrangements,” the report said.

For the KKB project, flood management work in seven blocks of Purba and Paschim Medinipur district commenced in March 2021 and ₹347.78 crore was released. “It was observed in the Annual Flood Report of I&WD for 2017 that all the seven blocks included under KKB project were inundated in 2017, which was indicative of lack of effectiveness of flood protection measures taken by I&WD,” the report pointed out.