Mumbai: During heavy rain, a woman opened the lid of a manhole to drain out accumulated water and stood there for seven hours to warn people not to come there to prevent accidents in Mumbai’s Matunga on August 4.
A few days ago, a video went viral in which Kanta Murti who sells flowers was seen guarding an open manhole in Matunga.
Speaking to ANI Murti said, “I sell flowers to make a living and support my three children’s education. My five other kids are married and I am the only earning member in the family. My husband is handicapped after being paralysed due to a railway accident.”
“On August 4, due to continuous rain in the city, there was water everywhere and people were facing difficulty. Some of the vehicles were floating in the water and things in my house also vanished away. So I came to the road and opened the sewer so that water can drain out,” Murti added.
Murti said she stood there uncovering the manhole to drain out the water and warned vehicles. She said that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials came later and scolded her for the act.
“I stood there in the water for seven hours and many people saluted me. Some gave me an umbrella and a police official also encouraged me for the act. People called up BMC officials but no one came. On the next day some official came and scolded me for opening the sewer,” she said.
“August 2017 incident in which a man fell in the manhole and died was going in my mind when I opened it and that’s why I did not move from there and guided people who were coming from the opposite direction,” she added.
On 29 August 2017 in Mumbai, there was heavy rain and flooding at Elphinstone Junction. Some people opened the lid of the manhole in which a man named Dr Deepak Amrapurkar fell and two days later his body was found near the sea in Worli.
Normal life was disrupted in Mumbai after the city received heavy rainfall at isolated places for 12 hours.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured all possible support to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray regarding the situation in Mumbai and surrounding areas due to heavy rainfall.