Bangur on VIP Road, not under Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya’s CMC but another CPM-run municipality, was under waist-deep water on Tuesday. In picture, two women try to take their mother, laid low by fever, to RG Kar Hospital. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Calcutta, Sept. 25: The message from the mayor to a rain-wrecked city: it’s bad but don’t bother too much.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya declared today that the waterlogging over the last two days had been the worst Calcutta had seen in recent times.

Then he added: “Five or six days of waterlogging in a year takes place in many parts of India and abroad in case of unusually heavy rainfall…. So, we should not bother too much.”

According to the mayor, his counterparts and civic body officials of some other Indian cities, whom he had met at meetings of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in Delhi, have shared his opinion.

If anyone is wondering why the corporation under such a mayor makes periodic claims that as much as Rs 5,000 crore was being spent on drainage and sewerage projects, Bhattacharyya has the answer. “Waterlogging is a big issue here and sentiments are attached to it…. So, we are trying to address the issue,” he told reporters on Tuesday as swathes of the city remained under water.

The mayor might know many Calcuttans who feel “sentimental” when they are trapped by water that is still and murky. Anima Banerjee, who lives in Swinhoe Street in south Calcutta, is not one of them.

Vinayak Residency, the apartment she lives in, did not have electricity for over 17 hours. The elderly lady spent last night all alone as her daughter could not reach home because of the waterlogging.

“There is an acute scarcity of drinking water as the pumps are not working. I cannot buy mineral water from nearby shops as they are all closed,” Banerjee, in her sixties, told The Telegraph.

Banerjee’s grievances resonated across various parts of the city on Tuesday. Although the clouds relented and the depression moved towards eastern Uttar Pradesh, most parts of Calcutta and adjoining areas remained flooded. The worst-affected areas included Amherst Street, Ultadanga, Bangur, Lake Gardens and Behala.

G.C. Debnath, the director of the weather section at the Regional Meteorological Centre, put the rain around 360mm in Alipore and 440mm in Dum Dum between 8.30pm on Saturday and 8.30am today.

The heaviest spells were on Monday. From 8.30am on Monday to 8.30am today, it rained 170mm — far lower than the 380mm on September 27, 1978.

The mayor can’t do much but he is well-meaning enough to hope for the best. “I hope if it doesn’t rain any more, accumulated rainwater from roads will recede from most parts of the city by Tuesday night,” he said in the evening.

Bhattacharyya added that spring tide in the Hooghly, clogged drainage arteries and choked drainage canals were the principal reasons behind the waterlogging.

Bhattacharyya’s party colleague and state finance minister Asim Dasgupta came out in his defence after a review meeting. “The CMC is running 93 permanent pumps and 190 makeshift pumps, but the process is taking time. All canals through which water drains out are full because of the annual high tide,” Dasgupta said.

The finance minister should try telling that to Archana Kundu. “This happens every year and we hear the same explanation. Our question is: why don’t they try to address the problems?” asked Kundu, a resident of Narkel Bagan in Garia.

Although there is no specific deadline attached to the drainage and sewerage projects, sources said even 2015 is an ambitious target.

Till then Annapurna De, a resident of Behala, will have to flee her home in the rainy season in search of dry land.

FORECASE

The Met office on Tuesday said the depression that wreaked havoc over Calcutta and south Bengal districts had moved away and the worst was over. However, it has warned of light to moderate rain over the city and the districts of Gangetic Bengal during the next 24 hours with possible heavy showers in isolated places.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070926/asp/frontpage/story_8362074.asp