The Hindu : National : Rain hits normal life in Kolkata, suburbs

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Thursday, Jul 20, 2006

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National

Rain hits normal life in Kolkata, suburbs

Special Correspondent

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee reviews flood situation, relief materials despatched

KOLKATA: Heavy and incessant rain affected normal life in Kolkata and its suburbs on Wednesday. There was waterlogging in several areas, throwing traffic into disarray for much of the day. There were also fresh reports of floods from some districts in south Bengal.

Suburban train services were affected as stretches of tracks were submerged under water. Trams did not ply in the city, which recorded about 180 mm rain. In some of the flooded areas, boats were requisitioned to ferry people. Most of the schools remained closed for the day.

Police pitch in

The city police helped in evacuating people from the flood-hit areas and supplying food packets. Pumps were used by the local civic authorities to flush out water that had accumulated in the low-lying areas. An alert was sounded along the coastal areas of the State.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee reviewed the situation at a meeting in the State Secretariat.

It was decided that Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Irrigation Minister Subash Naskar and Minister for Disaster Management Mortaza Hossain would go to Murshidabad district, parts of which were reeling under floods.

Relief material and food packets were despatched to the district.

Five persons died in the floods in Birbhum and Murshidabad.

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