Thanks to Ministry of Water Resources. The Planning Commission had sent experts committee's report a year back to the Ministry of Water Resources seeking its comment so that anti-erosion measures could be initiated on an urgent basis. Since then, the report was lying under the carpet.

``As a result of this massive and ever increasing erosion, not only the loss of land is taking place in a significant scale in the sensitive border area between India and Bangladesh, but the gap between rivers Padma and Bhagirathi-Hoogli is also getting menacingly narrowed down. The national highway-34 and railway lines connecting the North-Eastern states are also getting threatened,'' West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu informed the Prime Minister Atal BehariVajpayee.

Basu, who was here to attend a meeting to discuss various finance-related matters with the Prime Minister also sought his immediate intervention in initiating anti-erosion works before the monsoon season. Terming it a ``very grave situation'', Basu has also urged him to release Rs 139 crore as a special grant for anti-erosion works. He said that the State Govt has already submitted an action plan before the Ministry of Water Resourcescovering all the works identified under short-term measures category by the experts commision.