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Rain Cripples Life In Bengal; Army Called In

By Unregistered Visitors, Section Water
Posted on Tue Aug 14, 2007 at 01:09:58 AM EST

Torrential rain paralysed life in this metropolis and several other parts of south Bengal today. A cycle-rickshaw puller was electrocuted when he came in contact with a live wire while ferrying a passenger in a waterlogged area of the posh satellite township of Salt Lake here.

Heavy showers that began last night were continuing till the filing of the report in the evening, rendering most of the places in Kolkata, including the Chowrignhee, Esplanade, the BBD office area, Ballygunge, Gariahat, Bhownaipore in the south and Shambazar, Bagbagan, College Street, Sealdah, etc. in the north waterlogged.

Army and the civil defence personnel were engaged in rescue operations in the flood-hit districts. In the city also Army boats were deployed for rescuing people to safer places.

The state government's headquarters at Writers' Buildings and the police control room at Lalbazar remained waterlogged throughout the day. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Civil Defence were jointly pressed into the service to drain out the accumulated water. But the effort was of little help given the city's poor drainage and sewerage system.

In several south Bengal districts like Burdwan, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum, Hooghly, Malda and Murshidabad, the rain wreaked havoc, rendering hundreds of people homeless.

At least seven embankments near the Farakka barrage got breached and many villages washed away in the current of the floodwaters.

According to the state relief department, over 500,000 people were directly affected due to the floods and many of the flood-ravaged people, particularly in Malda, South 24-Pargans, Bardwan and Hooghly had been shifted to nearby camps and other safer places.

However, no death has been reported in the past 24 hours. The Alipore weather office, which recorded a total rainfall of 120 mm in the city and its surroundings in the past 24 hours, has forecast heavy showers and thunderstorms in the next 48 hours in the gangetic West Bengal, particularly, in and around Kolkata, Orissa and the region under the Bihar plateau. The fishermen had been warned against venturing in the deep sea tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the state government sanctioned additional Rs 200 crore for the relief and the rescue operations. Food grains, tarpaulins, medicines and other relief material had been dispatched to flood-hits areas.

Source: The Tribune, 14/8/2007

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