Even as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) are engaged in a blame game over waterlogging in front of the Iskcon temple in the city, the Congress on Monday staged a demonstration and artificially flooded the NHAI office here.
As a mark of protest, the Congress workers led by district unit president Manas Choudhury poured water from a tanker inside the NHAI office.
The protestors demanded that the authorities take concrete steps to prevent waterlogging at the particular stretch on National Highway-16 in front of the Iskcon temple.
Choudhury said his party would intensify its agitation in coming days if the NHAI does not resolve such issues at the earliest as the waterlogging is causing severe headache to the commuters and the locals.
Senior Congress leader Suresh Routray said this is just a trailer of the things to come. Similar protests would be held at the BMC office as well if the authorities fail to solve the problem soon.
On the other hand, a senior NHAI official stated that their department is responsible to construct drains to facilitate discharge of rain and waste water passing through the highway stretch. But cooperation is also needed from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in this connection.
“The BMC has to be involved as water from other localities is also accumulating and being released through the nearest culvert. It is unfortunate that only NHAI is being blamed for the waterlogging situation,” the official added.