The dry spell is over. Thank isolated thunderstorms because of a depression for the relief, not the monsoon.

The city experienced rainfall for three consecutive days from Saturday. Better still, the Met department forecast for the next three days is light rainfall.

Weathermen attributed the rainfall of the past three days to isolated thunderstorm activities — the fallout of a depression over Gangetic Bengal. “The depression prompted moisture incursion in the upper level of the atmosphere, triggering rainfall in the city and few other places in south Bihar. The depression is expected to weaken and turn into a low-pressure area as it moves towards the land in the north-west direction in the next 48 hours. The weakening of the depression would reduce the incursion of moisture in the region, leading to gradual decline in isolated thunderstorm activities over the next few days,” said P.N. Chaudhary, meteorologist, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Patna.

Images from Kalpana 1 satellite showed convective clouds over Patna on Tuesday evening. Chaudhary claimed that widespread monsoon rainfall would occur in the city only if the trough line passes though the state. It extended from Ganganagar, Narnaul, Satna, Daltonganj to northeast Bay of Bengal on Tuesday evening.

Chaudhary said had the monsoon been normal, there would have been a lull in rainfall activities in the state now. “Normally there is a break in monsoon in mid-August in Bihar. But the city experienced rainfall over the past few days this year,” he said.

The sporadic rainfall was enough to flood Patliputra Colony, though. The residents have been wading through water over the past few days.

“We are facing house-arrest like situation for the past five days. Children are missing schools because autorickshaw drivers are refusing to come to this area. It is extremely risky to venture out on the flooded streets at night. We have stocked as much grocery as possible to avoid going out frequently,” said Arshul Haque, a resident of house number 121 at Patliputra Colony, which does not come under the ambit of Patna Municipal Corporation.

Patliputra Co-operative Society looks after the drainage and sanitation works in the colony. Social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah, a resident of the colony, slammed the co-operative for its inefficiency.

“Anomalies in the functioning of the Patliputra Co-operative Society have led to the waterlogging menace. A case of financial irregularities against the secretary of the society is at the disposal of the registrar of the co-operative societies, Bihar. According to the byelaws of Patliputra Co-operative Society, the secretary is responsible for taking measures to flush out water from the colony,” said Amanullah.

P.K. Verma, the chairman of Patliputra Co-operative Society, said the secretary had been proved guilty in the court of the registrar of co-operative societies, Bihar. “But he (Singh) is still holding the post of the secretary. The work for draining out water from Patliputra Colony is being done at fast pace. We expect to clear water from the streets in another day. We could have drained out the water faster if Nehru Nagar drain was cleaned properly,” said Verma.