West Bengal: Century-old building collapses, 2 killed

Kolkata: Two people, including a woman, died when a major portion of an old dilapidated building suddenly collapsed at Indian Mirror Street in the Taltala area of central Kolkata on Tuesday morning. The two, who were trapped under the debris, were recovered in the late afternoon by firemen and members of the disaster management group. The reason for the cave-in has been attributed to heavy rain that lashed the city for more than three days. Parts of southern and western Bengal, especially districts like Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore, have been inundated with incessant rain in the last few days.

The two persons who were declared brought dead at the Calcutta Medical College Hospital have been identfied as Himadri Pahar (38), a resident of Ashoknagar in North 24 Parganas and Hansa Shaw (20), who was a resident of the collapsed building. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee went to the spot to monitor the rescue operation. “We will first remove the debris from the spot and later decide on the fate of the building,” a top KMC official of the building department said.

Meanwhile, parts of southern and western Bengal remained inundated with heavy rain. State irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee hit out at the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for indiscriminate release of water, particularly through the Panchet dam, thereby badly inundating parts of Howrah and Hooghly. “My secretary has written to his counterpart in Jharkhand while the chief engineer has written to the DVC chairman, urging the authorities again not to release water in this way. They have been ignoring our repeated requests of releasing water without any consultation with us. In a bid to save their states from inundation, they are making situations worse for the people of the state,” Mr Banerjee said.

The irrigation minister said that the Panchet dam has the capacity to hold seven feet of water, but it is not being stored. “DVC’s capacity to hold water is going down and they have been lackdaiscal with respect to desilting. West Bengal is geographically a low-lying area and is going on accepting water from all the neighbouring states and countries like Assam, Bhutan and Sikkim,” he added. The irrigation department, apart from strong monitoring of the situation and keeping themselves prepared to tackle disaster if any, is also strengthening the dams along rivers Damodar, Dwarakeshwar, Dwarka and Silabati.

The state agriculture department has set up a control room to monitor the condition of crops in the districts. District-level officers will inform the Kolkata office that has been set up at Jessop building about the overall condition of farming across the flood affected districts.

State agriculture minister Purnendu Basu said that the existing situation is under control, but the department is ready to help farmers if their crops are damaged.

A total of 11,340 metric tonnes of certified seeds have been kept ready. These can be distributed to the farmers if the need arises,” Mr Basu said. Depending on the extent of damage, the state government will seek financial help from the Centre.