Civic amenities in Balasore town are in bad shape, be it roads, drains or even the sewerage system. The town has been almost rendered a veritable hell by the 132-year-old municipality’s habitual neglect.
While roads are replete with potholes and craters, open drains, massive water-logging in many wards and mushrooming of unplanned and unauthorised structures have left the locals worried.
Even as bad condition of the city roads has been the main problem for the last one decade, besides the safe drinking water crisis and poor drainage system, the civic authorities have not laid underground sewer lines in many areas in the town. At many places, voters are greeting candidates with slogans “construct the road, get votes.”
The locals alleged that the open drainage system has made several parts of the town prone to water-logging. Though the officials carry out minor repair works, the roads get damaged as the accumulated water on the roads takes days to recede.
A local, Santanu Das, said even moderate rainfall for about one hour at a stretch floods main roads along with the low-lying areas due to lack of proper water discharging outlets. “Besides, due to poor standard of repair works, the main roads and lanes are replete with potholes. Waste from the vats is also not cleared regularly. Garbage is not collected from the individual homes for dearth of labourers,” he said.
Though the local defence authorities during a meeting with the District Collector in September last year had assured of constructing the road from Station Chhack to Chandipur after October 2012, no step has been taken yet. “They used to spend more than `30 lakh on repairing every year, which goes into waste after seasonal rains, but they never construct good quality road,” Das claimed. Sources said of 487.110 km of roads in the town, over 250 km are replete with potholes.
The century-old municipality still depend on groundwater and there is no proper water supply system.