Kolkata: Criticising DVC for allegedly discharging 11 times the volume of water it had released last year, CM Mamata Banerjee called Bengal's floods "man-made catastrophe". She claimed that the volume of water released was 30 times more than that of 2023 and that this was an attempt to trigger more flood-like situations in the state.
Banerjee took to X to write: "A staggering 11-fold increase in DVC's water discharge in 2025, compared to 2024, has shaken us. It is 30 times higher than 2023! There is a systematic attempt to trigger more and more flood-like situations across South Bengal. This is not a natural disaster. It's a man-made catastrophe.
" Her post came hours before her scheduled visit to flood-affected parts of Arambag and Ghatal on Tuesday.
"The huge increase in water released this year to flood Bengal is deeply disturbing and shocking. I detect a deep conspiracy in this! This must stop at once!" Banerjee wrote.
Accusing DVC of being "anti-Bengal", the CM wrote: "DVC's flood mismanagement record this year has surpassed its own dismal accounts of previous years. DVC has failed Bengal this year to an unprecedented degree. Clearly, the centrally administered agency is becoming more and more anti-Bengal, in keeping with the ecosystem that the central establishment is trying to generate all over India today.
"In her post Monday, Banerjee went on to say: "Outflow from DVC during June and July 2024: 4,535 lakh cubic meters. Outflow from DVC during June and July 2025: 50,287 lakh cubic meters. This massive, sudden, unprecedentedly high release during peak monsoon this year has devastated our districts, destroying huge crops, breaching a large number of embankments, damaging numerous roads, and forcing thousands to evacuate," she wrote. Last Sept, the CM had targeted DVC, saying "the state does not want an organisation that releases water and kills people.
"The CM has been repeatedly claiming that DVC officials had been releasing water in Bengal without taking into account its impact. "What is the use of the office when the central govt's water resource department is taking all the decisions? There are some babus who are sitting on comfortable chairs in Kolkata while DVC is causing a man-made flood across Bengal," Banerjee had said last year.