Bengal, Jharkhand lock horns over dam control

Bengal and Jharkhand Governments tended to lock horns over the control of the Massanjore dam even as one of their Ministers threatened to gouge out the eyes of those who would dare to look at the reservoir situated on a scenic hilly terrain of Jharkhand but traditionally maintained by the Bengal Government.

Jharkhand Minister Louis Marandi said that the Government of that State would not tolerate any interference with the dam and added “we shall gouge out the eyes of those who would dare to look at the dam.”

In what looked like an extension of the political battle raging between Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the BJP, the Government of that State had earlier object to the Bengal Government’s acts of painting the dam blue the colour that Bengal was using since Banerjee came to power in 2011.

The Jharkhand administration and the local leaders of Dumka district where Massanjore is situated demanded saffron colour instead of blue. Not only this they demanded that the official Biswa Bangla logo of Bengal Government should be removed from the entrance of the dam.

In fact twice the logo was removed and replaced by the official Jharkhand logo over the past a few days.

The dam on Mayurakshi district was built in mid 1950s to support agriculture, fishery and address power issues of the adjacent districts of Bengal and then Bihar which was bifurcated in the year 2000 to give birth to Jharkhand.

According to sources the dam was traditionally maintained by the Bengal Government since its inception.

Reacting to his Jharkhand counterparts remarks Bengal Minister Soumen Mahapatra on Monday said “such comments and inappropriate gestures are uncivilized and does not behove a Minister.”