Rains to continue; two electrocuted

SNS, KOLKATA, 27 February 2019: The prevailing nor'wester has claimed yet two more lives in the Hooghly district while the city to day received intermittent but heavy rainfall accompanied with strong winds. Hailstorm coupled with strong winds over the night caused devastation in cultivation across Burdwan (East), which has left the farmers panic stricken.

Kolkata woke up to an overcast sky to day with over 32 mm of rain recorded Dyer the past 24 hours. A heavy shower, which lasted for over two hours in many parts of the city affected traffic at many crucial junctions.The state will experience moderate to heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms for the next 40 hours with gusts of wind over 45 km / hr in some parts, warned the regional meteorological centre.

Western disturbances along with moisture laden south-easterly winds have caused rainfall in South as well as parts of North Bengal since Monday Cloud movement shows no sign of weather improvement, at least over the next 24 hours. Kolkata, Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas and Nadia, along with many districts in the North will get moderate to heavy rain, with chances of hail in some areas. Major risks of thunderstorm and damaging wind gusts are predicted across West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a father and son accidentally got electrocuted by snapped roadside power supply wires, leading to their death. The locals set a road block at Chinamore in Singur. They blamed the electricity department for their negligence which cost the life of two innocent local residents.

Today, in the morning Gokul Paramanik (75) a local resident unaware of the snapped live electric wires lying on the ground, stepped on it and was electrocuted while Ganesh Pramanik (55) , the son who was close by, rushed to the rescue of his father and also got electrocuted. Both the victims soon succumbed to their injuries. In the recent thunder squall, the road side betel nut trees at Chinamore, Dakhinpara in Singur, broke down and snapped the road side power supply wires.

The agitator s alleged that after the wires were snapped in the recent thunders quail, they informed the electric department who disconnected the power supply to the affected wires. But, strangely enough, today in the early hours, the department workers restored power supply to the all affected electric wires without removing it from the ground and put it back to the electric poles. The negligence on the part of electric department cost two innocent lives.

"We blocked the Tarkeswar- Baidyabati road demanding appropriate compensation," said an agitator.

The DSP headquarters Mr Arindom Das and Singur OC Sudipto Sadhukha rushed to the spot but faced a stiff resistance later, the agitators lifted the road block on assurance of appropriate compensation from Singur BDO Mr Pranab Kumar Mondal.

The police retrieved the dead bodies and sent for postmortem at Serampore Walsh hospital.

Four blocks - Memari- 1, 2, Kalna and Burdwan - Sadder in Burdwan (East) have suffered the brunt of last night's hailstorm. The agriculture department officials made a field survey in several block villages today. Potato, onion and man suffered the worst Mr Jaganath Chatterjee, joint

director, agriculture in Burdwan said:"We are yet to assess actual volume of crop damage. We are gathering the damage reports from respective blocks. What we have learnt, four out of 23 blocks recorded crop losses" . The agriculture department meanwhile has asked the farmers to drain water stored in the farmlands during last night's rainfall as the stagnant water may cause damage to the crop heavily.

As per the weather department, skies may clear Thursday evening in South Bengal and by Friday in the North. Fishermen have be advised to stay off the sea, hailstorm coupled with strong wind over the night caused devastation in cultivation across Burdwan (East) which has left the farm panic struck.