Sascha Wil­son

Just one day be­fore the gen­er­al elec­tions, res­i­dents of Low­er Bar­rack­pore af­fect­ed by floods yes­ter­day com­plained that they have been ig­nored by past and present ad­min­is­tra­tions.

Yone Ram­per­sad, of Pa­pourie Road, said he has no de­sire to stain his fin­ger for any po­lit­i­cal par­ty be­cause he had re­ceived no as­sis­tance over the years. Heavy rain­fall filled up the wa­ter­course gush­ing wa­ter in­to the roads and ma­roon­ing res­i­dents in their homes.

Ram­per­sad said he awoke around 4.30 am to get ready for work but could not leave his home be­cause it was sur­round­ed by flood­wa­ters. While this is a peren­ni­al prob­lem, he said it does not take away from the loss­es and in­con­ve­nience res­i­dents ex­pe­ri­ence on each oc­ca­sion.

He said his broth­ers helped him to put most of his house­hold items on a height, but his wash­ing ma­chine was dam­aged. He lives with his ail­ing moth­er who had to be tak­en to the home of one of his broth­ers.

Ram­per­sad com­plained that the last time his house was flood­ed the lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive promised to as­sist him, but no help came.

“I not vot­ing on Mon­day. It eh make no sense I go and vote. I not get­ting help. If some­body helps me I will help them,” he said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Mo­hammed Ali, said res­i­dents have been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing flood­ing un­der the present and past gov­ern­ments.

Yes­ter­day’s floods reached about three feet, but Ali said some­times the wa­ter lev­els can get to waist height.

“We have been go­ing through this for many years and some­thing need to be done about this,” he said.

Ali said the prob­lem is poor drainage.

“Noth­ing be­ing done about it and that is the rea­son why we have to take our pre­cau­tions to get things done to save our life, our fam­i­ly lives and our be­long­ings,” he said.

Ali said he was not con­cerned about who forms the next gov­ern­ment be­cause they will still be in the same po­si­tion.

Some mo­torists took a chance to dri­ve through the floods while oth­ers used al­ter­na­tive routes.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, who is seek­ing to be re-elect­ed as the MP for the area said the UNC gov­ern­ment had done ma­jor drainage work while they were in of­fice.

“There was no ev­i­dence of mass flood­ing like to­day,” he said.