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CMC once again under scanner

CUTTACK: Two days of incessant rain have put thousands of residents of the city staying in low-lying areas waterlogged even as the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) was found shaky in its approach to draining out the rainwater.

Sources said the city received at least 34 mm of rainfall during the past 24 hours and most residential localities were inundated by knee-deep water as drains across the city were choked.

Hundreds of people in slum areas were seen shifting to safer places as rainwater gushed into their houses.

The State’s main bus terminus at Badambadi here was the worst-hit place and hundreds of commuters who had returned to the city after three days of Raja festival from their native places were seen wading through drain water.

Areas of Gamhadia, Friends’ colony, Pattapola, Suta Hat, Rausapatna, Badambadi labour colony, Mahanadi vihar, Gandarpur, Kalyan Nagar, the satellite township of CDA at Markatnagar, High court colony, Ganga Mandir, Buxi bazaar, Thoria Sahi were faced with untold miseries as rainwater mixed with muck-filled drain water have entered their houses.

Faced with unprecedented deluge last year, people of the city have now started blaming the city civic body for the problem. “The CMC has not learnt anything from last year’s situation. The drains have not been cleared while the culverts are not functioning properly for which the water-logging has assumed serious proportion,” allege people staying in low-lying areas.

Since the Met office has warned of heavy to very heavy rain in next 24 hours, people elsewhere in the city are panic-stricken. Due to Cuttack city’s peculiar topographic position, drainage of storm and waste water had been a major cause of concern.

The century-old drainage system of the city had been grossly inadequate compounding the woes. Therefore desilting of drains before monsoon was always given priority.

Every year a major chunk of the civic body’s budget is earmarked for this exercise but the drainage system does not improve as a result muck-filled monsoon waters create deluge in the city, alleges city CPI(M) chief Subash Singh.

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