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Overnight downpour sinks Kolkata

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Kolkata submerged in Monsoon blues

(TOI photo: Debobrata Shome and Koushik Koley)

(TOI photo: Raja Bhakat)

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Rain, waterlogging cripple Kolkata

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Overnight downpour sinks Kolkata

(TOI photo: Amar Kar, Basabdatta Sarkar, Biplab Mondal, Debobrata Shome, Sandip Roy, Subhojyoti Kanjilal, Sudipto Das and Pratip Acharya)

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Rs 100 to ply 250m of Kolkata's waterlogged Sector V

KOLKATA: Over 18 hours of continuous pounding by torrential rains that started Friday evening has inundated vast areas of 13 districts, almost all of them in South Bengal, marooning over 18 lakh people. Excess rain since the beginning of the monsoon season in mid-June had already left these districts facing a flood-like situation. The overnight rain, triggered by a deep depression, has aggravated the situation further .Chief minister Mamata Banerjee , who had cut short her London trip to return to her flood-ravaged state, chaired a review meeting at Nabanna on Saturday and then toured the affected districts. She confirmed 39 rain-related deaths in the state and said that chief secretary Sanjay Mitra will hold another review meeting on Sunday.The CM added that her government will try to support the flood-affected people with its own resources but will not beg to the Centre for relief. “Did the Centre send any help for Darjeeling (where landslides killed many last month)?” an annoyed Mamata shot back when asked if she had sought the Centre’s assistance.At Sirajbati relief camp in Amta I block of Howrah, the chief minister was livid that BDO Gautam Dutta had told the media that relief supplies at the camps were inadequate. “Tell your BDO that administrative matters should remain within the administration and not spoken of in public. Also, tell him that I want him to deliver work and not hold press meets. I will teach him an appropriate lesson if relief work is not executed well,” she told Howrah DM Suranjan Das.At another relief camp in Howrah’s Udaynarayanpur, she asked the inmates if they had any complaints and directed officials to ensure everyone in need of help received relief.The worst affected areas are Kandi in Murshidabad, Panskura in East Midnapore, Arambag in Hooghly, Udaynarayanpur in Howrah and Habra in North 24 Parganas.Urban development minister Firhad Hakim visited Arambagh during the day and oversaw relief arrangements. Other ministers have also been asked to visit flood affected areas to coordinate relief operations.The government has so far set up 946 relief camps where 1,19,030 people have already taken shelter. The number is expected to rise manifold as boats have been deployed to bring several lakh marooned people to safer locales.More than half of Kolkata’s sister city Howrah — 26 of its 50 wards — was under waist-deep water on Saturday morning while all 35 wards of Panihati Municipality in North 24 Parganas met the same fate.