Railway minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee accused the West Bengal government of `deliberately` causing a `man-made` flood in the state as high tides in the Hooghly inundated large parts of Calcutta, including her residence. The toll in West Bengal floods rose to 521 on Wednesday with five fresh deaths reported as Chief Minister Jyoti Basu described the situation as a `national disaster` and demanded that a Central team visit the devastated areas before the flood waters receded.

Banerjee, who had a tough time removing government files to safety as her residence went under knee-deep water in the morning said, “The floods were not caused by monsoons. It happened because the state government does not have a water- management policy.”
Alleging that the floods were man made, she said water was deliberately released in the night from barrages in the state- Mayurakshi, Tilpara and Massanjore projects without prior warning to people to move to safety. Asked why the state government would do this her curt reply was, “You can investigate this.”
According to Banerjee a central team will be? in Calcutta today or on Friday to assess the situation. Alleging the state governhent had not heeded warnings by the regional meteorological centres, she asked, “Why did the state government wait for nine days to send a report to the centre? When I first explained the situation to the prime minister, he told me that he had not received any information from the state government.”
Bureau Report