Incidentally, Mamata had taken the initiative to invite the Union ministers to visit the flood-affected areas. She had in fact flown to the flood affected areas with the Defence Minister yesterday. She had wanted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to visit the areas.

Speaking to reporters today, Basu said, ``Fernandes came on his own without informing the state government and he went back without caring to inform us of his views about the flood situation.''

Although she contradicted Basu on the issue of Fernandes' visit, Mamata said she would not want the flood issue politicised. She said: ``We can complainabout who went wrong and what went wrong when the situation stabilises and the lakhs of homeless return to their homes.''

She urged both the Union and the State Governments to join hands to help restore people's confidence ``95 per cent of whom are not getting regular supplies of relief material.''

Interestingly, while several state ministers visited the affected areas, the state chief minister so far has not. The state Congress president Ghani Khan Chowdhury, the lone party MP from West Bengal, is reportedly trying to get Sonia Gandhi to visit flood-ravaged North Bengal.

Terming the North Bengal situation as a national disaster, Mamata however told media persons that ``its effects could have been minimized, had the state government taken enough care to repair the river embankments instead of using ``boulders to stop erosion.'' This is particularly true in the case of Murshidabad, she said.

Charity from home

As if to prove his critics wrong, who call him, `the chief minister's businessmanson', Chandan Basu on Wednesday went all along to the Writer's Building and handed over a bank draft of Rs 1 lakh to his father for Chief Minister's relief fund.

Chandan, who met his father at his chamber today, went through all the stages of protocol which any visitor, seeking an audience with the Chief Minister, has to abide by.