‘I have had enough’: Former teacher, 80, joins protest.. She was among demonstrators who blockaded thoroughfare linking Tollygunge with Garia

Kalyani Mitra sits in the middle of NSC Bose Road on Tuesday afternoon protesting against the delay in restoration of power supply. Picture by Subhankar Chowdhury

Subhankar Chowdhury, TT, 27.05.20, Calcutta: An 80-year-old former teacher sat in the middle of NSC Bose Road in Netajinagar on Tuesday because she thought every one should take to the streets to protest the failure to restore power even a week after Cyclone Amphan had struck Calcutta.

“If the young in my area can protest, so can I. I waited all these days hoping power supply would be restored. But I have had enough,” said the former headmistress of Sishu Mahal Primary School in Netajinagar.

The place where she was protesting is about 5km from the Tollygunge tram depot.

A number of areas in the city have been without power since the cyclone struck on Wednesday evening.

In some pockets where supply was restored through a temporary connection, power went off following a fresh glitch and that triggered a fresh wave of protest.

“When you are forced to deal with such problems for days on end, protest seems the only way forward. Where is the administration? Is it too much to ask?” Mitra, who was a teacher for 42 years, said.

A handkerchief wrapped around her face, Mitra said she “could not keep her cool” over what had been going on in her neighbourhood since Wednesday.

She was among the protesters who blockaded the thoroughfare that connects Tollygunge with Garia. The residents had placed logs and branches of fallen trees to set up the blockade.

Mitra said they had hoped that CESC would fix the lines and restore supply after a team from the Odisha fire and disaster services removed trees on the fallen cables on Monday.

Teams from Odisha were engaged after workers of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation failed to do the job.

“But where are CESC people? Where are local leaders? Will they appear only after protest? Can they imagine what an elderly person like me goes through without power for six consecutive days,” said Mitra.

A group of women, including Kalyani Mitra’s neighbour Babita Dutta Majumder (left), who were also protesting delay in restoration of power supply on Tuesday Telegraph picture

She suffers from hypertension and does not have anyone else in her family. She said her condition had worsened because she had not been able to sleep for several days.

Barely five yards away, on a tree trunk was seated Babita Dutta Majumder, Mitra’s neighbour.

Mitra lives on the ground floor of a building close to the crossing of NSC Bose Road and Netajinagar and Babita lives on the first floor.

Dutta Majumder, who was seated along with a group of women, wondered whether they were paying the price for not organising any demonstration so far.

“We have been hearing stories about people squatting on roads to get supply restored. We did not do any such thing hoping CESC would do the needful. But the wait seems endless. I think we are paying the price for not protesting,” said Dutta Majumder.

She said at a time when they were reeling under power cut, the government is claiming that supply had been restored to 90 per cent of the affected areas.

“If that was the case, why people in different pockets of Netajinagar and Bansdroni are blocking the roads. Why is there no fact-checking before such claims are made?” said Dutta Majumder.

The middle-aged woman was later seen mobilising a group of women to catch hold of a CESC team in Khanpur, a neighbourhood in Bansdroni.

Chasing, cajoling and detaining CESC technicians have become a new normal in affected neighbourhoods. “We have to do the same thing. We are left with no choice,” said Babita.