Khurshid B. Chowdhury sits ‘powerless’ in his drawing room. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

The second consecutive bandh on Friday heaped misery on people across the city. Individuals bore the brunt of the forced disruption.

In central Calcutta, an elderly couple went without power for over 24 hours with CESC short of hands. On the eastern fringes, a middle-aged man was left bleeding on a deserted stretch after the autorickshaw he was travelling in overturned.

“I can’t remember how many times I called up the CESC’s helpline since the power went off around 3.30pm yesterday. Each time, they gave a different reason for the delay in resumption of supply,” said 66-year-old Khurshid B. Chowdhury, a retired engineer who lives with his 60-year-old wife and three daughters in a Royd Street house.

CESC blamed the delay on the bandh. “Very few staff members turned up on Thursday and Friday,” said a senior official of the power utility.

On VIP Road, 55-year-old Parimal Chowdhury was seriously injured when the autorickshaw he was travelling in overturned near Kestopur around 11.45am. The driver lost control while trying to steer past a handcart that came in front of the three-wheeler. He drove away from the spot soon after leaving Chowdhury, a Baguiati resident, groaning in pain by the roadside.

Police later took him to RG Kar Hospital, where doctors discharged him after dressing the deep cut in his head and putting his fractured left arm in a sling.

Chowdhury was lucky to have a doctor attend to him. According to a senior health department official, very few doctors turned up for work at the major state-run hospitals, including RG Kar, on Thursday and Friday.

“A number of scheduled surgeries were cancelled. The turnout of patients at the outpatients departments of the hospital was also low,” added the official.