The Ranchi Municipal Corporation was caught napping on Friday as rain lashed the capital baring the reality of sewerage and drainage system in the city. The first spell of rain was like a blessing for the baked earth and people but it soon became a curse as drains everywhere started overflowing and waterlogging began in many parts of the city.
The city witnessed a rainfall of 43.5-mm till 5.30 pm and it will increase further.
Around 30-minutes of rain on Thursday evening inundated streets near Daily Market on Main Road, at Kishorganj Chowk, Vidya Nagar, Kanke Road and lower Chutia. Although water receded after few minutes it exposed the sham of cleanliness drive run by the municipal body.
“It is all about civic sense. Half of the problem will be solve if civic sense develops among people. We clean drains and they throw plastics and dump materials in it,” said Assistant Executive Officer of RMC Ramkrishna Kumar.
The Assistant Executive Officer claimed that the municipal corporation is on cleanliness drive and so far unclogged drains and removed garbage from more than 30 municipal wards.
However, the municipal body expressed limitations about being omnipresent at all places to remove water logged in low lying areas.
“We do our best. Moreover we take actions based on information that comes to us be it through telephone calls or media reports. We are continuously on job,” maintained Kumar.
Notwithstanding water logging and overflowing drains the RMC is implementing its cleanliness drive ward-wise that incidentally means that residents of low lying areas will have to wait for the municipal body to arrive with man and machine to bring respite from curse of meandering through unhygienic and stinking water flowing from drains besides saving them from mosquito menace that increases due to water logging.
“We will increase number of labourers in areas where water logging is common,” added the Assistant Executive Officer.