ROURKELA: The first monsoon shower proved to be a nightmare for the residents living in low-lying areas of Rourkela. Rain started lashing the city from Tuesday night and continued till wee-hours of Wednesday.
People had harrowing time with drain water entering their houses while residents in some other areas were seem wading through waist-deep water. Locals said the artificial flooding was caused by encroachment on drains.
The low-lying area of Ward No. 1 behind Haryana Bhawan and along the railway tracks was under waist deep water. The clogged drain here led to water-logging and locals had to wade through filthy water to reach their offices.
Some of the affected people met RMC Commissioner Rashmita Panda and urged her to take remedial measures. Panda attributed the water-logging at Ward No.15 to clogging of main drain which has further narrowed near Daily Market area due to encroachment.
Former chairman of erstwhile Rourkela Municipality Narendra Tripathy said Telugupada slum near Lal Building area, part of Malgodam slum, the habitation behind Birsa Munda Statidum, many low-lying pockets of the vast Gopabandhupali slum cluster also faced water-logging with filthy drain water entering houses.
He alleged that some large drains of three feet deep were cleaned superficially and huge deposits of silt were left at the bottom of drains leading to artificial waterlogging. At Gopabandhupli slum, many mud-houses were partially damaged due to heavy rains.The residents heaved a sigh of relief after water receded by late afternoon.