Mamata demands compensation from Bhutan for north Bengal floods

Accusing the Bhutan Government of releasing water that caused the recent severe flooding and multiple landslides in North Bengal that led to 38 deaths, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday demanded that the neighbouring country pay compensation for the losses incurred.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

“For a long time, we had been insisting on the formation of an Indo-Bhutan River Commission with representation from the State Government. Because of the water released from Bhutan, North Bengal faced such a scale of disaster. We want the Bhutan Government to pay compensation for the losses,” she said in Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district, where she has been reviewing the relief operations.

Banerjee visited multiple relief camps in the Bamandanga area of Nagrakata, one of the worst-affected areas due to heavy rain on October 4, which flooded the region and caused widespread damage to life and property in the upper reaches of Darjeeling and its foothills.