CUTTACK: A spell of heavy showers that lasted for little over an hour on Thursday left major parts of Cuttack city severely waterlogged, exposing the sheer inefficiency of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) in preventing flooding during rains. That more than 120 residential and market areas were affected by the summer evening rains portends far worse during the upcoming monsoon. Even citizens have lost hope in any good civic activity that the present CMC administration can do.
The CMC which has been claiming to have cleared drains in the city had to use de-watering pump sets at several locations to drain out excess water. Water from overflowing drains entered houses in the worst-hit Tulasipur, Deula Sahi, Patapola, Sutahat, Khatbin Sahi, Rover Street, Mohammadia Bazaar, Mehendipur, Jazi Bazaar and Jobra localities in the city.
A few locals were stranded on Upper Baliyatra ground where the Baisakhi Banijya Mela has been organised. The ground remained waterlogged for an hour. “The CMC is making tall claims of drains being cleaned regularly. If the drains were indeed cleaned at regular intervals, such a situation would not have prevailed after one-and-a-half hours of rain. If such is the situation at the onset of summer, imagine what it would be like during monsoon,” said former corporator Giribala Behera.
“It is such an unfortunate time for Cuttack City. While extravagant showpieces are being constructed and tom-tommed as marvels and changing faces of the city, the hapless citizens are crying for basic standards of living. If filth and garbage strewn all over, roads and lanes dug up all around were not enough, the waterlogging conditions on a summer evening and the signs for the coming months are despairing. Never seen a civic administration so inefficient,” lamented a local.CMC mayor Subhas Singh said the waterlogging was caused in low-lying areas.