Met department monitoring formation of low pressure area over Bay of Bengal

With the flood situation in parts of South Bengal still worrisome, the Met office on Friday said it was closely monitoring the potential formation of a low-pressure area over northwest Bay of Bengal around September 23.

A cyclonic circulation over North Andaman Sea is expected to develop into a low-pressure area in northwest Bay of Bengal around the same date, weather officials said, adding that they are keeping a close watch on the movement of the weather system.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government is providing relief to thousands of people affected by the floods in the districts of Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas, a state official said.

Holding the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) responsible for floods in some districts owing to release of water from Maithon and Panchet dams, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday suggested there was a conspiracy behind the situation in the state.

DVC has a network of four dams - Tilaiya and Maithon on river Barakar, Panchet on river Damodar and Konar on river Konar, according to its official website.

While supervising the flood situation at Panskura in Paschim Medinipur district, she warned of severing all ties with the Kolkata-headquartered DVC.

Asserting that the flooding in South Bengal was caused by the DVC releasing water rather than rainfall, the CM termed it as "a man-made flood."

Banerjee claimed that the DVC has released 550,000 cusecs of water this year, contributing significantly to the current situation. The CM has been visiting various flood-hit areas in South Bengal since Wednesday.