ROURKELA: With no elected council for four years and plagued by the shortage of manpower, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) has virtually become defunct as denizens of the Smart City face the worst phase of denial of civic services.
Due to the inaction of RMC, ongoing development works have been stranded while a fund of `372 crores under Smart City projects is lying idle. Piles of stinking garbage, clogged drains, growing mosquito menace, deteriorating parking woes, encroachments, unattended damaged roads, malfunctioning of the street light system and bovine menace on roads are heaping untold miseries on the citizens, claimed former chairman of erstwhile Rourkela Municipality Nihar Ray.
Rourkela Bar Association president and also a former chairman of the erstwhile municipality Ramesh Bal accused L&T of doing sub-standard work in the ongoing underground sewerage system project of `342 crore being executed by Odisha Water Supply & Sewerage Board.
He said as there is no monitoring by RMC engineers, the mega project will end up creating troubles for people. Though RMC claims to have recently spent `20 lakh towards annual drain cleaning, rainwater is flooding streets and houses due to clogged drains. He further claimed that harmful plastic materials continue to flood the city markets despite a ban on it five months back.
On August 5, RMC Administrator and Rourkela ADM Monisha Banerjee had in a meeting declared to form ward-wise committees and ensure development works and delivery of civic services with people’s participation.
Terming the decision of the RMC Administrator as farce, president of Rourkela unit of Congress Biren Senapati said at a public contact meeting at Chhend Colony, Banerjee taunted people by asking them to stop drinking milk and get rid of roaming cattle.
However, when flooded with complaints of poor sanitation, she left in a huff. Senapati said the RMC urgently needs effective officers. After transfer of RMC Commissioner in July-end, Deputy Commissioner Sushma Bilung has been given additional charge but without financial powers. As a result, payment of various allowances to poor beneficiaries and salary of RMC workers has been halted, he claimed.
Former Congress MLA Pravat Mohapatra said the civic body has been seriously hit with shortage of officers, field-level workers and sanitation staff. With no elected council for four years, denizens of the city are forced to suffer the miseries silently, he added.Attempts to contact Acting Commissioner Bilung proved futile.