A young woman died a few metres from her home in Howrah’s Salkia as she tried to wade through knee-deep water on Thursday night.
Purabi Das, 22, is suspected to have leaned on an iron shutter for support when she was electrocuted. She was going to a friend’s place with her younger sister.
Bhairab Ghatak Lane has been underwater for several days, residents alleged.
Salkia is less than 6km from Esplanade and is located on the western bank of the Hooghly, across the river from Ahiritola in north Calcutta.
Police blamed a live wire that came in contact with the iron shutter for the electrocution. An unnatural death case has been started, said an officer of the Howrah police commissionerate.
Purabi’s bereaved father said he saw her being electrocuted but could do little.
“I was in my shop when I heard my daughter scream. She had come in contact with an iron shutter in a shop attached to an under-construction building just opposite my shop. I rushed to help her but the moment I touched her, I received a huge jerk and fell. I shouted to switch off the MCB. The shop owner switched it off. Then I tried to lift my daughter who had slumped in the water,” said Tarak Das, an electrician who also runs an electrical parts shop.
Purabi was taken to a salon next to her home where her family and neighbours rubbed her palms and feet in a bid to revive her. “She gasped a few times but then collapsed,” recalled Sahil Shaw, who once studied in the same coaching centre as Purabi and now lives in the building a portion of which is under construction.
Purabi was declared dead at a private hospital. She was pursuing her master’s in science from an institute in Salt Lake, neighbours said.
Purabi lived with her parents and a school-going sister.
Many in the neighbourhood complained that the roads were submerged in ankle to knee-deep water the entire monsoon and for a few months even after, but the state government had paid no heed to their woes.
A visit to the locality on Friday showed how residents were habituated to wading through filthy water.
Most had laid bricks in front of their homes to step on so their shoes were not soaked in drain water immediately upon stepping out. But after a few steps, most would encounter more water anyway.
Open vats with garbage littered in stagnant water, open manholes submerged under water and open high drains marked the neighbourhood.
CESC officials went to the spot on Thursday night. “Preliminary investigation by our officers revealed a live wire from an under-construction building came in contact with an iron shutter. The victim possibly got electrocuted after coming in contact with either the shutter or the wire,” a CESC spokesperson said.
The official said the CESC had submitted a written complaint at Malipanchghora police station reporting their findings.
A neighbour, Samir Pal, said: “Purabi’s death is very sad. What is more unfortunate is that she had to die for the administration to even notice the condition in which so many families are living here.”
According to the Met department Howrah received 45mm of rain between 8.30am on Thursday and 8.30am on Friday. That is not even near “heavy rainfall” according to the Met’s count.
Residents area complained that the state administration did not care about them.
Many attributed this apathy to the lack of an elected Howrah Municipal Corporation.
A senior official of the state government said the term of the last elected civic board ended in December 2018. There has been no election since.
Sujoy Chakravarty, the chairperson of the board of administrators of the HMC, said: “We are working to improve the drainage there. Our aim is to drain out the water within two or three hours. The continuous rain over the last few days led to waterlogging there.”
Residents contradicted his statement and said the waterlogging persisted for days even after rain subsided.
Asked about allegations that the HMC had not done basic pre-monsoon preparations, Chakravarty said: “We were late to start because of the model code of conduct in place for the Lok Sabha elections.”
The Lok Sabha results were out on June 4. Monsoon arrived on June 21.
Moreover, there is no model code bar on preparing for monsoon.