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'We're surviving on muri, batasa'

Kolkata: Sharma family living at 13B, Ramnath Pal Road in Ward No. 76 has been surviving on muri and batasa (puffed rice and sugar candy) since Tuesday, with their house being submerged under knee-deep water. Seven members of the family are now spending nights sitting against each other on a wooden Charpai raised on bricks.



“My first prayer in the morning goes to the rain god to keep us away from such deluge. But somehow he might be unhappy with us,” said Gayatri Sharma. Her husband Shiv Dayal Sharma blames the civic body for their “monumental neglect to Ramnath Pal Road.” “The councillors come and go, but our misery remains the same,” said Shiv Dayal.

The couple is embarrassed with their son-in-law visiting their house for Rakshabandhan and getting stuck at the house in a flood-like situation . “I will not be surprised, if any one of the lockgates is kept shut to inundate the area to win an annual contract of pumping out the water,” said one of Sharma’s sons. “We only hope that rain will stop now, otherwise we have to move out of the place and take shelter somewhere else,” said Gayatri. The fear of enteric diseases is already looming large on Sharma’s family.

“We are haunted by enteric diseases every monsoon. The drinking water line gets breached and seweage water gets into the drinking water line. Most of the water taps are submerged. So, this time there will be no exception. We have accepted this as our fate,” said Shiv Dayal.

“There is hardly any relief provided by to us by the civic body. Though we are surviving on puffed rice, none helped us with food. We have heard that other wards in the vicinity get relief under such circumstances,” he added.

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