Ministers chased away after two flood deaths

PURSURA/SURI:Angry villagers of Pursura in Hooghly chased away two ministers on Thursday, aday after two sisters were washed away by the gushingfloodwaters.The girls were washed away after a huge quantity ofwater was released from the Durgapur barrage. A major breach in the dam on theDamodar near Pursura made things worse. Army jawans patrolling in speedboatsrecovered the bodies near Malaypur village.Ministers chased awayministers Srikumar Mukherjee and Murtaza Hossain when they went to visit thearea on Thursday.Puja Chatterjee (14) and Aditi Chatterjee (11), twosisters, were standing at their doorstep when they were swept away by a columnof water gushing into the area. Villagers of Pursura and theadjoining Arambag and Khanakul had been fuming over the tardy relief work whenthe two ministers went there. They were accompanied by Hooghly zilla parishadsabhadhipati Asit Patra. Hundreds of angry villagers mobbed the ministers. "Whyhave you come here? Our houses are under water. There is no drinking water.There is no food for the last three days. Leave this place immediately," the mobshouted. "This is a flood-prone area and we have been telling the administrationto take precautionary steps for a long time. But the officials did not pay heedto our appeal," said Anup Das of Deulpara. The ministers went backto their cars and drove away from the spot.On Thursday, four peoplewere injured when food packets airdropped from helicopters fell onthem.In Birbhum, two persons drowned near Tarapith when their carskidded off the flooded road and turned turtle on Thursday morning. Police saidthat they were among a group of pilgrims from Begusarai. They had come to offerpuja in the Tarapith temple. Locals had warned them not to travel the floodedroad. But they ignore the warning. Later, police recovered the body of RajeshPathak (30).