By: Trishna Mukherjee and Aishika Banerjee
KOLKATA: Housed in hotels, the displaced residents of Bowbazar had hoped for some good news from Nabanna on Wednesday. But mayor Firhad Hakim, who said KMRCL will arrange alternative accommodation for the evacuees and pay the hotel rent till the houses and shops are rebuilt, could not provide any timeframe for this.
Hakim chaired a meeting with state chief secretary Moloy De, KMRC officials and other stakeholders and indicated that the KMC will begin work to remove debris only after KRMC issued a soil stability certificate. This, he said, may take several days, if not a week.
Sandip Shaw, 40, a resident of 19, Durga Pithuri Lane, has been living with his family of six at the Central Guest House since September 1. “Not only have they allotted us small rooms, but they have put us on the third floor. My father is 75 years old and has not been able to step outside this hotel ever since we arrived,” Shaw said.
Central Guest House is now home to 19 families like the Shaws. The hotel has no elevator and the Shaws have to live at two ends of a long corridor on the third floor. Kishore Kumar Boral, a retired doctor and a resident of 6A/1, Durga Pithuri Lane, is staying in the same hotel with his wife and son. He ran his clinic from his house and was planning a knee-replacement surgery, which has been indefinitely deferred. “We had been allotted 10 minutes inside our houses to bring out everything that matters. Without any electricity or light, it was impossible to bring out even the simplest of things,” he added.
Uma Gupta, 40, a resident of 12, Shyakra Para Lane, had just redone her own house to prevent damp. She is an event manager and all her savings are in her house. But for now, she has been living at the Embassy Hotel. “We have not been able to enter our house once. All my life’s savings are in that house and we don’t know if we will ever be able to return,” said Gupta.
Sarmistha Das, 22, was to appear for exams in November. “I haven’t been able to bring my books and I don’t know whether I will be able to sit for these examinations at all,” she rued.
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