From right: District president of the CPM’s All India Kisan Sabha, Biswanath Ghosh, and the Forward Bloc MLA from Harishchandrapur, Tajmul Hossain, talk to the affected villagers at Harishchandrapur on Thursday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Aug. 4: Leaders of the Left parties and their frontal organisations, who visited the flooded areas of Ratua and Harishchandrapur today, had to face angry residents who alleged that they had not received any relief despite the villages being inundated for several days.

According to the residents of the area, 200 metres of an embankment on the Fulahar river had been washed away on Tuesday at Ratua’s Surjyapur, causing the water to flood at least 25 villages of the block.

The ten villages in Harishchandrapur have been under water for the past one week because water from the swollen river had rushed into the areas several days back.

There is no embankment along the river in the block.

Today, the CPM Habibpur MLA, Khagen Murmu, the Forward Bloc MLA from Harishchandrapur, Tajmul Hossain, the CPI district secretary, Tarun Das, and RSP district secretariat member, Sarbanand Pandey visited both the blocks.

“We have been marooned for the past seven days. The roads and the fields are submerged and now the water level has again started rising, threatening our homes. We have been living without any aid or help from any one,” said Liyakat Ali, a resident of Uttar Bhakuria in Harishchandrapur. Residents of Ratua said they had not received any help from the administration ever since the embankment was breached on Tuesday.

“You go and find out what the administration is doing,” some of the angry villagers told the politicians.

District president of the CPM’s All India Kisan Sabha, Biswanath Ghosh, who also visited the flood-hit areas, said he and the others were “surprised” at the attitude of the district administration.

“At least 25 villages (in both the blocks) have been inundated and the district administration is totally aloof. Not only are the people living under the threat of the spread of water-borne diseases, they are yet to get any form of relief. We have heard the complaints of the villagers and we will take them up with this unresponsive district administration,” Ghosh said.

According to Hossain, the affected villagers should get drinking water immediately. “Safe drinking water is urgently needed for the people so that they are not infected by gastro-enteric diseases. Boats are also required as the entire area is cut off from the rest of the district. We are going to meet the district magistrate and demand an explanation,” Hossain said.

District magistrate, Rajesh Sinha, however, said the water level of the Fulahar was receding. “It is not true that we have not sent any relief. We have already sent 12kg of rice per head for Harishchandrapur and a polythene sheets for each family. We are also planning to distribute pouched drinking water in the block. We have also sent dry food to the affected people in Ratua,” Sinha said.

Around 50,000 people stay in the 25 villages in Ratua and Harishchandrapur.