ANSHUMAN PHADIKAR

An East Midnapore school still under water. Picture by Jahangir Badsa
Tamluk, July 20: More than a month after the floods in East Midnapore, some two lakh people are homeless and over 350 schools shut because they are serving as relief camps.

"Hundreds of villages are still under water,' said district relief officer Srikrishna Maity. Unless the water recedes, the government won't be able to assess the damage and fix compensation.

If the water has receded in some villages, the houses are unfit to live in.

The dredging and widening of canals have failed to bring about any positive change in the city life as the rain-induced inundation continues to cause suffering to the city dwellers from the very beginning of the rainy season.

The city dwellers said the low-lying areas of the port city go under knee-deep to waist-deep water even during the short-lived rainfall lasting only two to three hours that aggravates the suffering.

The government has lined up a project to end frequent waterlogging in Singur because the area was about to become "a very important location' on the state's industrial map. "Singur is going to become a very important location... Keeping in view the future of the area

Like all previous years this year too the Bhopal Municipal Corporation failed to remove the garbage dumps and the rubble piled up on the footpaths and roadsides and desilt and clean the rainwater drains before the onset of the monsoons. Predictably, the unexpectedly heavy early monsoon showers have thrown the city out of gear. Once again the hapless citizens find themselves wading through ankle-deep/ knee-deep waters on the flooded streets and roads. It is a state of deluge in the low-lying areas.

Guwahati Mechanical Division of the Water Resources Department (WRD) is engaged in resectioning of the Bharalu and the Mora Bharalu rivers since February last at an estimated cost of Rs 1.3 crore under a Guwahati Development Department (GDD)-sponsored scheme. Sources in the WRD said that removal of silt from the Bharalu is completed in its reach between the Jonali PWD RCC Bridge on the RG Baruah Road and Bishnupur behind the Arya Vidyapeeth College. Between Bishnupur and Bharalumukh, the riverbed below the bridges over the river too has been cleaned..

Speakers at a seminar yesterday underscored the need for taking a comprehensive working plan to offset the effects of climate change. They also emphasised creating awareness among both mass people and policymakers to this end. "We will not be able to stop climate change but it is possible to reduce the range of its bad effects,' said Mazharul Alam, research fellow of Bangladesh Centre for Urban Studies, at the seminar held at WVA auditorium in the city. Mazharul along with Sardar Shafiqul Alam of the same organisation presented the keynote paper at the seminar.

Rain in the Capital has meant inconvenience more than relief for commuters, especially for those taking the road between ITO and Mathura Road under Tilak Bridge. Neglected for months, the stretch has become a deadly mix of waterlogging and sewage water filth.

The Khulna City Corporation along with the district administration launches a drive on June 29 to pull down unauthorised structures along a river and 21 canals in and around the city. The corporation and the district administration issued notices on June 18 and 19 asking the encroachers to shift their structures by June 28, corporation sources said adding that many of the structures were built hindering the flows of the river and canals

The suspected outbreak of enteric in ward 129 of Behala has highlighted the lack of financial control over tax-payers money. For mayor, Mr Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, today alleged local councillors have spent almost Rs 2 crore, allocated specifically for building a new canal in the area, on other purposes. Last Saturday, a meeting of civic officials held in the office of borough 13 and 14 had revealed the irregularity.

"I am falling ill in this bus. There are elderly people, women and children. It is getting dark and we are insecure in the middle of this jungle. My cellphone battery is running out. Soon I will lose all contact. Please help us,' Maya Roy (53) tells The Indian Express over her cellphone. A resident of Entally and a patient of hypertension, she is undergoing a nightmare since Saturday night. Without food and water, huddled inside a private bus, she is stuck up near the Lodhasuli forests in West Midnapore on the Orissa-Bengal border.