Noting that this “massive, sudden, unprecedentedly high release” during peak monsoon this year has “devastated our districts, destroying huge crops, breaching large number of embankments, damaging numerous roads, and forcing thousands to evacuate”, the Trinamool Congress supremo said she detected a “deep conspiracy” in this.

Equating the phenomenon to the larger agenda of identity politics which the Trinamool Congress is planning to pursue against the BJP in the run-up to the Assembly elections next year, Banerjee wrote: “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.

This is the second time in three weeks that Banerjee admonished the DVC and blamed the agency for wreaking flood havoc in south Bengal pockets.

On 15 July, the chief minister chaired a high-level meeting at state secretariat Nabanna to monitor flood-like situations in parts of the state and said, “The DVC is releasing waters in critical volumes to save themselves without caring for the consequences our state is suffering on account of their actions. We have been fighting this menace for the last 14 years without any positive result”.

Significant parts of south Bengal districts, including Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly and Howrah have remained at the receiving end of floods on account of overflowing rivers and heavy rains during the past two months.

The CM had, on previous occasions, also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging his intervention in the matter and advocating for dredging of the rivers and canals falling under the DVC’s catchment area.

“If dredged properly, the rivers can hold an additional four lakh cubic meters of water,” Banerjee had maintained.