Guwahati's drains

The citizens of Guwahati, along with the people of rest of Assam, are currently experiencing the first showers of Spring. While farmers across the districts are fond of this rain, denizens of Guwahati are definitely not amused when clouds gather over the city. It is not that Guwahatians do not love the rain. But then, they definitely don't like the rain when the authorities – the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Public Works Department (PWD), Water Resource Department (WRD), Guwahati Development Department (GDD) and Guwahati Smart City Ltd (GSCL) – whose primary mandate is to ensure that citizens/tax-payers are not deprived/robbed of their basic amenities, as also of their right to lead a safe, decent life, fail or sit idle. April is already halfway through, and the above-mentioned agencies, departments and organizations which are in various ways responsible for proper drainage of the city have miserably failed to carry out this basic responsibility. A couple of Spring showers, and residents of various localities have already got the first taste of water-logging, all because the above-mentioned agencies and departments have yet to clean the drains in the past several months. Moreover, widening work of a number of major drains across the city, which should have been ideally completed before March-April, have remained half-done or even less. Citizens have been lodging complaints through various mechanisms including the social media, pleading with the above-mentioned authorities and agencies to repair the drains and clean them. But the above-mentioned agencies and departments have either turned a deaf ear or have invented one plea or the other to justify why they have not been able to discharge their basic duties and responsibilities. April is nearing its end and the monsoon is not very far away. Even a child will say that Guwahati is heading towards another horrible period of water-logging, clogged drains, and flash-floods. God bless GMC, GMDA, PWD, WRD, GDD and GSCL.