“This is a normal seasonal development,” Randhir Jaiswal said
New Delhi:
India on Monday blasted reports from Bangladesh that the opening of the Farakka barrage in West Bengal is causing flooding in some areas of the neighboring country.
“We have seen fake videos, rumors and fear mongering that have caused misunderstandings. This must be strongly countered with facts,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
He said that relevant data is shared regularly and timely with concerned officials of the Joint River Commission of Bangladesh and this was done this time as well.
“We have seen media reports about the opening of the Farakka barrages which will allow the flow of over 11 lakh cusecs of water downstream of the river in its natural course into the Ganga/Padma river,” Mr. Jaiswal said .
“This is a normal seasonal development taking place due to increased inflow due to heavy rainfall in the catchments of the Ganga river basin upstream,” he said.
The MEA spokesperson responded to media queries on the issue.
“It must be understood that Farakka is just a barrage and not a dam. Whenever the water level reaches the level of the pond, the inflow that comes there will also pass,” he said.
“It is just a construction to divert 40,000 cusecs of water to the Farakka Canal, which is done carefully using a system of gates on the main Ganga/Padma river, while the remaining water in the main river flows to Bangladesh,” it added Jaiswal added.
Also last week, India described as factually incorrect reports in Bangladesh that the flood situation in certain parts of the country was caused by the opening of a dam on the Gumti river in Tripura.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that flooding in the common rivers between the two countries is a “shared” problem causing suffering to people on both sides and close mutual cooperation is required to resolve the problem.
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