An alert was sounded on Wednesday in all districts in southern West Bengal as heavy rains lashed this metropolis and adjoining areas, leaving another six persons dead.
KOLKATA: An alert was sounded on Wednesday in all districts in southern West Bengal as heavy rains lashed this metropolis and adjoining areas, leaving another six persons dead, while heavy showers were forecast over the next two days.
Normal life in Kolkata and adjacent districts remained paralysed as the skies opened up for the second day on Wednesday, aggravating water-logging. The state government stepped up efforts to distribute relief materials among the people affected by the rains.
Four persons, including a child, died after being struck by lightning in Bankura district. One person was electrocuted in South 24 Parganas and another died after being bitten by a snake at Kakdwip in the same district, police said.
With Kolkata having received 300 mm of rains since Monday night, a worried West Bengal chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters, "There is a forecast of heavy rainfall in the next 48 hours. I have asked the administration to take steps (to cope with the situation)."
The met office here predicted heavy to heavy rainfall at isolated places in Gangetic West Bengal, including Kolkata, over the next two days due to the formation of a low pressure area over northeast Bay of Bengal.
A control room has been opened at the state secretariat, the Writers' Buildings, and the state disaster management department activated, the chief minister told the assembly.
The opposition, however, pilloried the government for its "inept" handling of the situation. The rain-induced havoc saw Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi coming out of the Raj Bhavan and visiting water-logged streets from Sukia Street in the north of the city to Mullickbazar and Tiljala in the south.
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