The Calcutta High Court today directed the West Bengal government, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and CESC to submit a comprehensive report through affidavits on the city’s drainage systems and conditions and causes of so many deaths in the electrocution during unprecedented rains in the night of Monday-Tuesday.
The court also sought a report if there are unauthorised constructions near rivers and canals by November 7. The court also asked the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited (CESC) to submit a report on why electrocution took place during the rain in the city on Monday night and in the wee hours of Tuesday.
A double bench of Acting Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray following a PIL sought a report from the CESC on the electrocution incidents that led to the death of at least 8 people in different parts of the city after they came in contact with snapped wire on the city streets.
The Bench directed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to furnish details of what preventive action was taken and what steps initiated when the entire city was flooded. The report should also contain the sewage system to drain out the waters and why waters accumulated 24 hours after rains stopped, court sources said.
The West Bengal government has been directed to clarify its action plans to safeguard the lives of the citizens and compensation for the victims’ families.
At least 10 people died in electrocution incidents, with 8 fatalities in Kolkata and 2 in Bishnupur and Narendrapur in South 24 Parganas.
