Inconsistency, or A Conspiracy? - The Ganga: Water Use in the Indian Subcontinent - page 111

time that a categorical assurance is given to the effect that supply of water in the upper
reaches will be fully controlled after keeping apart the minimum requirement of 40,000
cusecs for Farakka. A Control Board with engineers from CW&PC and the State govern-
ment concerned may be set up to draw up allocation of water at different points and to
supervise its implementation.

The then Governor of West Bengal, S. S. Dhawan in a letter, dated 18th April
1970 to Dr. K. L. Rao urged:

... West Bengal is certainly not against execution of any major irrigation project in Uttar

Pradesh or Bihar. All that this State wants is that the availability of the minimum flow of
40,000 cusecs throughout the year should be assured before any project in the upper reaches
is taken up. If this is not done, the Farakka Barrage Project, which is being executed at a
huge cost, will become infructuous and the condition of the port of Calcutta will continue
to deteriorate.

In a letter to Indira Gandhi, dated 27th August 1970, Mr. Dhawan reiterated his
anxiety over the confusion. He wrote:

... I understand, Dr. K. L. Rao is inclined to dispute that the Calcutta port needs as much as

40,000 cusecs. All the experts who have examined the problem have consistently stated

that the absolute minimum is 40,000 cusecs - probably a little more. We, therefore, see
no reason why Dr. K. L. Rao, or the Government of India, should now take the view that
somehow the Calcutta port might be able to manage with less than 40,000 cusecs, and in our
view any apportionment of waters, based on this assumption, will be wrong and ultimately
fatal to the Calcutta port. I must

...

warn the government that Haldia too will meet the
same fate as the present Calcutta port in a few years, unless the minimum water supply
is assured

...

. I further suggest that there should be a statutory inter-State commission to
regulate the withdrawal of water by the different States but subject to the proviso [that] the
minimum of 40,000 cusecs must be made available to the port of Calcutta during the lean
period, March to mid-June.

...

Others who took up the matter with the Government of India included a mem-
ber of Indian Parliament, (M. P.) Samar Guha who in a letter to Indira Gandhi on
17th July 1972 wrote:

... Dr. K. L. Rao on the floor of the Lok Sabha on

31 st May 1972 regarding the project appears to have created serious uncertainties about
its principal object and great concern for the future of the Calcutta port and its subsidiary
deep-draft Haldia port with its newly constructed industrial complex, along with the very
fate of the Calcutta Metropolitan Area and of the entire national economy of eastern India.
The Prime Minister should immediately intervene in the matter and take all necessary steps
without delay to assure ... . Discharge of 40,000 cusecs of Ganga water through it to flush
out the Hooghly estuary so that the Port of Calcutta may be spared of the haunting spectre
of an ignoble death.

The ambiguous statement made by ...

Thus, it was clear that the Government of West Bengal and the Calcutta Port
Commissioners did continuously object to Dr. Rao's ambiguous announcement
about the quantum of head-water supply to the River Bhagirathi from the very
beginning of the construction of the Farakka Barrage. They did insist on minimum
discharge of 40,000 cusecs, round the year, especially during the lean season, when
the sand from the sea moves upstream with flow tide to the maximum. They also
emphasized the necessity of imposing restrictions of withdrawal of the Ganga water