Siliguri: Two siblings died after a boundary wall of a neighbour’s house collapsed during heavy rains at Paghlupara in Sahudangi near Siliguri late on Tuesday night, triggering a wave of grief.
The deceased have been identified as Madhumita Mahanta (3 years) and Debayan Mahanta (one and a half years), children of Parimal and Rinki Mahanta. The family lived in a tin-roofed house.
According to locals, the incident occurred around 11 pm on Tuesday night when the torrential rains that have been lashing Siliguri and adjoining areas since morning intensified. Water had entered another room of the house, prompting the parents to step out to clean it. At the same time, the rain-soaked boundary wall of the neighbour’s house collapsed on the children’s room, burying them under the debris. Neighbours somehow pulled the children out and rushed them to Siliguri District Hospital, where the doctor on duty declared them dead. With the family refusing to conduct a post-mortem, the last rites were performed the same night.
The grieving parents alleged that the boundary wall was in a dilapidated condition for a long time and the soil beneath it had weakened further due to incessant rains.
Rajganj MLA Khageswar Roy visited the family on Wednesday. “The family was to get a house under the ‘Housing for All’ project. We will investigate the matter and try to help them as much as possible,” Roy said. In another incident, 57-year-old Darshai Orao, a resident of Chandmuni tea garden area, was swept away after falling into the Panchnoi river between ward 47 and Patharghata gram panchayat. The incident took place on Wednesday. Sources said he slipped and fell into the river. The water level of the river has risen due to heavy rains. Disaster management teams have launched rescue operations but no trace of him has been found till the time of writing the report. Due to continuous heavy rains, several areas of Siliguri Municipal Corporation have been severely waterlogged, including wards 5, 46, 15, 17, 27, 2, 35, 45, 47.
Water also entered several shops in Bidhan Market, ruining goods. Traders blamed poor drainage system for this. Areas like Fulbari, Phakdaibari, Ambikanagar, Shiva Mandir were also inundated.
Meteorologist Gopi Nath Raha said that heavy to very heavy rains are expected on August 13 and 14, for which an orange alert has been issued and a yellow alert has been issued for August 15, 18 and 19 in Darjeeling district. Rains with thunderstorms may continue till the morning of August 20. Siliguri recorded 114.00 mm of rain in the last 24 hours, while the hilly areas of Darjeeling received 16.8 mm of rain. The water level of the Mahananda river has risen to 113.400 meters.
