Malda, March 12: The sudden downpour yesterday has played havoc in Panchanandpur village in the district.

At least 10 families, as well as 23 shopowners lost all their possessions as the heavy rainfall eroded huts and shops. The only road link between Panchanandpur and 13 other villages in the area, 350 km from Calcutta, was also snapped. All electricity, telephone and cable lines were also snapped, leaving the village completely isolated and in the dark.

The villagers accused the administration of overlooking their demand for an alternative road and held it responsible for their being cut off.

The Malda district magistrate, Abhijit Choudhury, assured the villagers that the irrigation department would build an alternate road in a week and restore communication facilities. ?The irrigation department will later build a proper alternate road at a distance of 1.5 km as per the original proposed plan,? he said.

The villagers also held the irrigation department squarely responsible for last night?s erosion. ?Had it not been for the embankment that they had been building along the banks of the Ganga, this erosion would have never occurred,? said a villager.

?They stacked all the boulders in this area and the embankment succumbed under pressure. There was no engineer or person of authority to whom we could point out the impending disaster,? said another resident of the village.

Yesterday?s sudden rains caught the villagers of Panchanandpur, 350 km from Calcutta, off-guard and they are still reeling under the effect of their losses.

The waters of the Ganga, as a result of the heavy rainfall, eroded Chaitantala, an area measuring 300 m. by 150 m. in the village. The erosion snapped the road, which was the only connecting link to 13 villages in the area. Moreover, at least ten families of the area and 23 shop-owners lost all their possessions as the furious waters eroded their huts and shops.

District magistrate of Malda Abhijit Choudhury visited the stranded and distraught villagers this morning along with superintendent of police Shashikant Pujari.

The erosion also snapped all electricity; telephone and cable lines leaving the area completely isolated. The villagers blamed the local administration for overlooking their demand for the construction of an alternative road for more than a year and held it responsible for their current crisis.

Choudhury promised the villagers that the irrigation department would build an alternate road within a week?s time and restore communication. ?While this will be a temporary stopgap solution, the irrigation department will later build a proper alternate road at a distance of 1.5 km as per the original proposed plan,? he assured them.

The villagers also held the irrigation department squarely responsible for the erosion that took place on Friday night. ?Had it not been for the embankment that they had been building along the banks of the Ganga, this erosion would have never occurred,? said a villager. ?They stacked all the boulders in this area and as a result it succumbed under pressure leading to the erosion. Even if we wanted to point this out earlier on, there was no engineer or authority, to whom we could air our pleas,? he added.

On his way back, Choudhury was also shaken by the misery of 15-year-old Godavari Sarkar, who told him that her family could not even afford two square meals a day. Godavari, who lives with her father Birendra Sarkar, a vegetable vendor, and five brothers and sisters, is just one example of the abject poverty of that village. Her family was not even able to procure a tarpaulin from the Block Development Officer?s office after their hut was damaged due to rains.