People wade through a flooded street after high tide in the Ganga, in Kolkata on Monday (PTI)
An unrelenting downpour that has brought Kolkata to its knees claimed the life of a youth on Monday. Drenched by the time he reached the workshop where he used to work, Sanjib Dey (20), a resident of Ultadanga area, died after he was electrocuted when he tried to switch on a pedestal fan. The incident took place under Maniktalla police station area at Harish Neogi Road.
“At about 9 am, Sanjib, who worked as a labourer in a wooden furniture workshop, got electrocuted while trying to turn on the electric switch. People rushed him to R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, where he was declared brought dead,” said an official. Meanwhile, a portion of an old, dilapidated building collapsed at Murari Pukur Road. The building, which falls under ward number 14 of KMC, was declared as “dilapidated property”, said KMC sources.
At about 9.30 am, a portion of the boundary wall — measuring 11 ft x 6 ft — and another small part of the cornice collapsed. No one was injured, said sources. However, a big crack was noticed on the building wall, due to which local police, with the help of civic officials, evacuated the structure. Meanwhile, several parts of south and central Kolkata were waterlogged. Low-lying areas off the EM Bypass, VIP Road and Dunlop, also faced the same situation.
The situation left many office-goers frustrated. “I left home despite waterlogging in my area. When I reached the bus stop, buses refused to drop me to Maidan area saying that several areas along the route are full of water. I had to come back home and asked my entire team to work from home,” Rohit Kumar, who works for a private software company, told The Indian Express. Many low-lying areas in the southern and northern fringes of the city were also in knee-deep water.
Om Prakash Thakur, a teacher, could not leave his house the ground floor of his house in Baguihati area was flooded with drain water. “This is just ridiculous. We are unable able to get out of our beds,” he said. Meanwhile, Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Sovan Chatterjee assured people that the water is being flushed out using pumps.
“Heavy rain for the last three days in Kolkata has caused problems for people in some areas. We are using 54 pumping stations to drain out the water. Due to increasing water level of the Ganga, we are facing difficulty while pumping water into the river.
“We have some ongoing projects in hand. For the future, more pumping stations are being constructed, for which around Rs 300 crore has been allotted. Once the project is completed, the people won’t face such problems,” he said.
