KOLKATA: In a tragic incident, a five-month-old girl, Rishika Ghoroi, died after falling from a bed into stagnant water inside her waterlogged home at Birati near the Kolkata airport. The incident took place on Saturday morning in the Debinagar area of Ward No. 13 of the North Dum Dum Municipality.
According to local sources, the mother of the baby had left the room after putting the child to sleep on the bed. Locals said that the child somehow fell from the bed into the water while sleeping. The baby girl was rescued from the water and was first taken to North Dum Dum Municipal Hospital. Later, she was taken to Dr B C Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences at Phoolbagan in Kolkata. There, the doctors declared her dead. Her body has been sent for autopsy.
Even though there has been little rain in the last two days, the entire area has allegedly remained waterlogged for more than two weeks, locals said. Water had also entered the victim’s home.
North Dum Dum is traditionally a low-lying area, and local residents suffer from waterlogging during the monsoon every year.
In the last few years, the North Dum Dum Municipality has made several plans to solve that problem. As part of that plan, work on six projects has also started. The municipal authorities hope that once that work is completed, the waterlogging problem will be largely under control.
However, according to a section of local residents, several drainage canals in the area need to be renovated and also desilted. Recently, the municipality and the irrigation department jointly inspected those drainage canals. After this, a decision was taken to renovate them. Work has started accordingly, according to municipal sources.
The North Dum Dum Municipal Authorities claim that there is a problem of waterlogging in about 19 wards, out of which the problem has reduced to some extent in a few places. If the six projects are implemented in phases, the problem will be completely solved, the authorities claim. However, locals said that an underground drainage system is needed in the area to solve this problem.