West Bengal rain toll climbs to 14

By IANS

Kolkata : The death toll due to incessant rainfall in West Bengal rose to 14 while boats continued to ply in Kolkata, which remained flooded with rainwater for the third day Thursday.


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West Bengal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia confirmed 11 deaths even as official reports from districts totalled to a loss of 14 lives.

Ten-year-old Mohammed Akhtar and his seven-year-old brother Mohammed Nausad drowned in rainwater in Kolkata's twin town Howrah Wednesday but police later said their deaths could not be related to the heavy downpour.

Three deaths have been reported from Hooghly, Bankura and Midnapore districts since Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, eight deaths were reported from Kolkata and its adjoining districts, including seven from a wall collapse. Six members of a family, including children, had died in another wall collapse in South 24 Parganas district's Bishnupur area.

"All affected districts have been alerted in view of the situation and we are reaching succour," West Bengal Relief Minister Mortaja Hossain said.

He added that government health workers and volunteers are distributing medicines and disinfectants in many areas of the affected districts to prevent an epidemic.

The regional director of the meteorological department G.C. Debnath said more rains are expected. "It would continue to rain since a low pressure over the Bay of Bengal has developed into depression and (is) hovering over Bangladesh," he said.

The meteorological department said Kolkata had received 174.2 mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.

Since Tuesday, boats are being used to supply dry food and drinking water in large parts of north Kolkata, especially in Ahmerst Steet and Sukhia Street areas where ground floor residents are living with murky rainwater inside their rooms. There is no electricity in several areas of the city.

Train services to and from Kolkata were seriously affected for the third day Thursday but flights took off as per schedule.

"Luckily we are not affected much. All flights are taking off despite a little delay since morning," Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) airport director V.K. Monga told IANS.

Several local trains and long distance trains were cancelled, railway officials said. Bus services were also disrupted in Kolkata while cars were stranded in many parts of the metro.

Resentment against the Left Front-ruled Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has been mounting and people are calling up television channels to vent their ire.

Most of them blame mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya for not having done enough before the onset of monsoons to mitigate the water logging problems of the metropolis.

"There is water logging but our pumps worked to drain out the water. We tried our best to pump out the water. You have to understand that our measures to improve the civic amenities would yield result in time. We hope the woes will be less next year," said Bhattacharya.

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