A fire that destroyed several shanties in Duttabad last week has left many residents without any identity documents and school-going children without their books.
At least 52 families that used to live in a cluster of shanties in Duttabad are now spending nights in local clubs or with relatives or neighbours as their homes have been reduced to ashes.
On Friday, many of them told The Telegraph that the books of their children had been burnt and many of them left without identity documents, such as voter and Aadhaar cards.
Sourav Mridha, a Class VIII student at Bidhannagar Ramkrishna Vivekananda Kendra, said all his textbooks and notebooks had been destroyed in the fire.
Mridha, who was attending tuition when he heard about the fire in Duttabad, said only his history book and copy were safe as they were with him at his tutor’s house. Everything else was burnt.
“I am now going to school without a school bag as everything in our house has burnt. We could not take out anything the next day,” Sourav said.
Sourav stays with his parents and brother Samir, a Class XI student, in a government-run school nearby.
There are many children like Sourav who had lost their books and most dwellers of this cluster of shanties have lost their identity cards and important documents like bank passbooks and cheque books.
Shyamoli Mondal, who works as a cook in several Salt Lake households, said she was worried as the entire lot of her bank documents and her identity cards and that of her daughter were lost.
“Both our Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards and my daughter’s birth certificate were lost in the fire. We don’t know how we will again get hold of these papers. I don’t even have photocopies of them,” said Mondal.
On Friday, a team from the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation went to the area and distributed relief materials like rice, cloth and tarpaulin sheets to the affected families.
A senior official said they had drawn up a list of the 52 families that have lost their homes and said they would help all affected residents get their identity cards back.
“We are ready to help them and a camp will be organised where they can apply to get their identity cards back. Our representatives will help them apply for the documents like Aadhaar and voter identity cards,” said the official.