Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy has said that a joint committee of Tata Steel and local civic body, Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) will carry out inspection of sewage and drainage system in city areas and submit report in a month.
The minister reviewed execution of urban projects by JNAC and Mango Notified Area Committee in areas coming under Jamshedpur West constituency at the Circuit House for nearly two hours. He said that the joint team of Tata Steel and JNAC would be doing inspection of the drainage and sewage system passing in areas bordering command areas.
“We have been receiving complaints over cleaning of drains and maintenance of sewage lines in areas having ambiguity on command areas of Tata Steel civic wing Jusco and JNAC. In view of rainy season steps are being taken. This apart, there are drains which carry Tata Steel’s effluents and pass through JNAC areas and it is the company’s liability to clean such drains,” said Roy.
The minister said that execution of decision taken during today’s meeting would be reviewed next month.
The city has nearly 40 big drains out of which 15 drains have effluents of companies passing through it. There are nearly 150 small drains in different localities of the city.
He directed the officials of various departments to carry out cleanliness of various localities, culverts, drains and other parts of the city. He has ordered that the low-lying areas situated close to the Swarnarekha and Kharkai rivers should be earmarked so that preventive action may be taken in case of heavy rains and flooding of such areas.
“We have been asked to take immediate preventive measures or face the music from the administration. Every year Monsoon rains coupled with hailstorm create havoc in the city with drains overflowing leading to water clogging,” said an official.
The JNAC is entrusted with upkeep of the civic amenities in urban slums outside Tata Steel command area for a populace of over 5 lakhs. JNAC has 70 cleaning staff and take on ad-hoc basis further 20 to step up the cleaning of small drains.
“We have received order and will start cleaning of the drains through the private contractors. While letters have been written to senior officials of Tata Steel, Jusco, Tata Motors, IS&WP, Tinplate Company of India limited, Tata Power, TRF limited and Tata Bluescope Steel limited to clean the nullahs carrying their effluents,” said noted an official.