Tezpur town grapples with water-logging problem

From a Correspondent

Tezpur, June 4: Tezpur is the city of administrative headquarters and municipal board of Sonitpur district and considered to be the cultural capital of Assam and is known as the cleanest city of Assam. But now it has turned out to be a moribund place with water logging leading to a chaotic situation for the people of the areas of 10 Ward, opposite IMA House, O-Point Tezpur, 19 no. Ward, Jyotibon area, 18 no. Ward, rail gate near Sonitpur Medical Hall and 16 no. Ward area.

People continue to reel under massive water due to water logging as a burst of rain lashed the area leaving people under indescribable afflictions and it is simply exposing civic body's lack of preparedness to deal with the perennial problem.

The Tezpur Municipal Board constituted in 1894 under the provision of the municipal act covers an area of 7.10 sq km. having a council of 19 elected ward commissioners. As per the official record, the Grade II status Tezpur municipality board with a demographical representation of municipal area records 58,559 population according to the 2011 census.

The slum population inside the municipal area is 6,672. The total number of households in the municipal area is 13,749. However, the denizens here lament that the Tezpur Municipal Board which is committed to provide different facilities to the public like water, street light, roads and draige and sanitation (lifting and cleaning of garbage), has totally failed to meet all these public need in a real sense. Moreover, though in the recent past the Tezpur Municipal Board constructed 43.9 km of roads and 112.95 km of drains for facilitating  surface communication to the common citizens and to check the vulnerable water logging problem, it has failed to carry out its exact responsibility.  Beside this, the Tezpur municipal board has one public burial ground, seven markets, 33 community halls and five ancient ponds which are in a very unhygienic state due to the lack of maintence by the authority. Again, rapid growth of urban population and growing urbanization has led to ever increasing demand of urban service. But according to the requirement, the Tezpur Municipal body has not been able deal with these mentioned issues.

The slogans like Clean Tezpur, Green Tezpur, Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission have no any meaning here. Eighty-year old Maya Das, wife of proficient Dr. Rai Mohan Das, resident of 10 Ward, opposite IMA House,  Zero Point, alleged adding that a representation had already been submitted regarding water logging problems to the Tezpur Municipal Board in order to address the problems but no measures had yet been taken to resolve the problems. "If the heart of town is witnessing such a situation, it is beyond imagition how the people of other parts in and around of Tezpur are being victimized during the rainy season. How can a responsible public officer remain silent in this catastrophic situation," she vehemently added.

Aishwarya Kakati, scial worker and cultural activist, said that the culvert on the main road near Tezpur Gas Agency, was constructed 40 years long back and its present mechanism does not equip properly to  drive the flow of water freely and thus during even a small shower, the place gets water-logged. "It is very unfortute that the Municipal Board and local MLA have not taken any preventive measures in this context to repair the same," said Kakati.

He further stressed that water-logging problem was not just there in the main road, but also in other parts of almost every ward of Tezpur. The beautiful city Tezpur with unmatched tural beauty has turned into a filthy city due to water logging and garbage dumping. He urged the authority concerned to look into the whole matter judiciously for taking preventive measures to solve the water-logging problem.