Balurghat/Howrah, April 30: Two septuagenarians died in different parts of Bengal after lying on roads unattended for hours as people around them chose to turn the other way.

When Brojobala Mondol, 70, slumped over her basket of greens she sells daily at the Tahabazar market in Balurghat at 10.30am today, no one came forward to help her. Two hours later, police took her to the district hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The superintendent of the hospital, Adhip Ghosh, said the cause of death could only be ascertained after a post-mortem. However, doctors at the hospital said the woman had probably died of heat.

Brojobala, a widow, lived with her son Dwigen, a day labourer, and helped contribute to the family’s income by selling vegetables. “I am shocked that people did not take my mother to the hospital. She could have been saved,” Dwigen said at the hospital.

The secretary of the local traders’ body, Hareram Saha, said no one had informed him. “The vendors around her should have come forward to help her,” Saha said.

In Howrah, a 75-year-old man was left to die on a road as two police stations allegedly fought for more than three hours over jurisdiction.

Padam Prasad Panth, a Nepali national, was declared dead on arrival when an officer finally took him to Howrah District Hospital. The police suspect Panth was an asthmatic as an inhaler was found in his shirt pocket.

Howrah district police chief N.K. Singh ordered a probe into the role played by the Bantra and Shibpur police stations. “The report will come in three days,” he said.

Panth, who had worked as a factory guard in Howrah earlier, was staying with a friend in Ghoshpara. He had arrived from Nepal today.

At 6.20am, Panth fell on N.S. Road and slumped. Residents gathered on the spot but no one took him to a hospital. They called Bantra police station which asked them to contact the Shibpur police station. Around 11am, a traffic officer took him to the hospital. His son, who lives in Nepal, has been informed.