A school in Howrah's Jagachha was still marooned on Wednesday morning, around 48 hours after the prolonged downpour.
"We tried to resume classes on Wednesday but the office room, headmaster's room, a part of the verandah and the school lawn are still under water," said Tarun Patra, the teacher-in-charge of Jagachha High School, which has around 1,500 students on its rolls.
(below) Animesh Majhi, an English teacher of the school, walks down a flooded a corridor. Pictures by Anup Bhattacharya
Only a handful of students turned up at the school - around 4km from Howrah station - on Wednesday. "They had to be sent back," Patra said.
"We plan to resume classes on Thursday but are not sure whether water will entirely recede by then," Patra said.
Many of the teachers had reported for duty on Wednesday but they had to spend most of the day sitting cross-legged on chairs. When Metro visited the school around 1pm, the floor of the staff room was 6inch under water.
"I went to the school as I had a practical class. But the office room, headmaster's room and a part of the lawn were still flooded. I was asked to return home," said Anwayee Samanta, a Class XII science student.
"I was so determined to attend the practical class that I took a rickshaw to the school paying Rs 50. The fare is Rs 30."
The school gets flooded - and the classes have to be suspended for a few days - after every spell of prolonged downpour.
The areas where most of the students live - Dharsa, Moukhali, Sundarpara, Sardarpara, Prasastha and GIP Colony - went under water, too, after Monday's showers.
Santragachhi Station Road and Mohiari Road, which most students take on the way to school and back home, were under knee-deep water on Wednesday.
People who have been living in Jagachha for years said the problem of waterlogging in the area had intensified since the construction of Kona Expressway more than 20 years ago.
Most of the drains that passed under Kona Expressway, and discharged water into the ponds near Santragachhi station, got choked while the road was being built.
The mayoral council member in charge of drainage in the Howrah Municipal Corporation, Shyamal Mitra, said: "Water from Jagachha used to flow into a water body that has recently been filled up. That's why there is so much of waterlogging."
