Siblings Partha and Niharika Banerjee wade through water on their way home to Behala from school on Monday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Saraswati Ghosh, a Class II student, was all tears for not being able to attend classes on Monday. Barisha Girls’ Primary School, in Behala, where she studies, could not open its gates as the compound and the adjacent roads were flooded.

Her plight was shared by several other children of Behala who could not make it to schools.

Areas like KK Roychowdhury Road, Narayan Roy Road, Silpara, Brajamoni Debya Road, Subhash Palli, Talpukur and Sabarna Para, where Saraswati lives, are flooded following Sunday’s downpour.

It was a day off for students of nearly half-a-dozen other schools in Borough XIV, including Vivekananda Mission Primary School, Barisha Girls’ High School and St Joseph’s Primary School.

Siblings Partha and Niharika Banerjee of Sakherbazar were, however, not so lucky. Their school in Ballygunge did not declare a rainy day, forcing them to wade through filthy water on the way to school and back home. Office-goers, too, faced the same problem.

Most shops in the area were closed.

Residents blamed the faulty drainage system for the waterlogging. “Our area was never flooded unless it rained incessantly for days. But since the drains started getting clogged a couple of years ago, we have been suffering waterlogging after every spell of shower,” said Asit Roychowdhury, who has been living on KK Roychowdhury Road for more than 50 years.

The Trinamul Congress councillor of ward 126, Shyamadas Roy, admitted that the sewer lines have been clogged. “We are at a loss on how to tackle the situation, which has been compounded by the fact that water from other wards is pumped out through this ward.”

Councillors of the area and borough chairman Sovan Chatterjee met municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Monday and suggested that an underground drainage line be laid connecting Silpara with Charial Canal under Calcutta Environment Improvement Project, said Roy.

“The commissioner agreed to the proposal and asked for a detailed project report. We will submit it soon,” said Chatterjee.

Other city pockets that were flooded on Monday included Jodhpur Park, Muktaram Babu Street, Thanthania, Picnic Garden Road, Broad Street and Park Circus.