Two students Dipannita Mistri and Arpita Shaw were admitted in the SSKM hospital last night after they complained of severe stomach ache and exhibited symptoms of dysentery.
“If I return home, I will miss my private tuitions before the final examination, but I had no other option,” said Manjistha Banerjee, a final year MSc student of the Biharilal College. Banerjee was taken ill last night and is presently undergoing treatment in her hometown, Burdwan. She complained that the hostel authorities did not even provide water-purifying tablets. While the students of the nearby areas can return, the students living in far off areas like Jharkhand find it difficult to return home.
Though, the authorities have cleaned the tank, the pipelines are still damaged. “The foul odour emerging from the contaminated tank and the dirty pipeline caused the outbreak of enteric,” said a medical expert, who is looking after the hostel inmates.
Describing the episode as unfortunate, Calcutta University Vice-Chancellor, Suranjan Das said,” We are keeping a tap on the entire situation. No one has been arrested yet.” An inquiry committee was set up yesterday to investigate the cause of the water contamination.
To ensure the availability of safe drinking water, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is supplying three trucks of drinking water to the students who are still in the hostel.