30,000 residents reel under perennial water logging in Dhubri town

From a Correspondent

DHUBRI, Sept 14: Life of nearly 30,000 residents living in wards no 11,12,13,14 and 15 of Dhubri town are miserable as they have to live in knee-deep water every year owing to water logging as there is no draige system or outlet to drain out the water. The situation becomes worse when it rains for hours resulting in rising of water level and that spills over to the roads and by-lanes, leaving residents to negotiate and wade through water-logged condition for months. Situation has become further worse after intermittent rain for around two hours since Sunday night that led to water logging in Shantigar, Subhash gar and other low-lying areas of the town.

A resident of ward no 12 (Subhash gar), Tapash Paul alleged that there was neither any outlet in their ward nor in ward no 13 (Shantigar) due to unscientific and faulty construction roads and by-lanes in the area. “tural outflow of the water was chocked as roads and by-lanes were constructed without any provision of Hume pipes or culverts resulting in water logging for months,” Paul further alleged.

Ajay Das and many other residents of wards no 12 and 13 alleged  that  choked drains was the other reason that led to the water-logged streets and lanes. “The Dhubri Municipal Board does not clean drains before the rains, and that leads to difficulties during monsoon and the busy Amco Road remains inundated at Dhubri TB (Chest) Hospital for months,” residents further alleged. Himangshu Mandal, a resident of ward no 11 (Mistry Patty) said almost all by-lanes and houses remained inundated in the locality.

“Residents of this area have to pass sleepless nights with water flooding their houses. We have to spend the nights taking care of the household goods. Every year, whenever there is heavy rain, it inundates the area as there is no drain to flush out the water,” Mandal resented. Basanta Rajbhar, a resident of ward no 3 (Balurchar) said most of the houses were located in the low-lying areas and the stagnt water posed a problem with no outlet to drain it out.

Joy Gopal Dey, another resident, alleged that until and unless the by-lanes along with drains were raised, water-logging would remain. After protest by residents reeling under water logging on Sunday, Dhubri Municipal Board installed machines in the area to pump out stagnt water, but till now, it has failed to give any respite to the problem.

Meanwhile, an official source in Dhubri Municipal Board informed that it had already started to construct nearly 15 dilapidated roads of Dhubri town with blocks at the cost of Rs. 1.4 crore, which would be completed before Durga Puja.

“There is no fund in the board to carry any development works and even the fund of Rs. 5 crore under the Fifth Commission has not been released by the State Government yet. So we offered the works to the contractors with a condition that payment will be made when fund comes to the board, and contractors agreed upon the condition and they have already started executing the works,” ward members in the board informed.