KMC apathy leads to waterlogging woes

A senior official of the Drainage department,on a condition of anonymity,said,“Every year,before the onset of monsoon a meeting is held in the presence of Mayor with all the concerned departments including Drainage and Solid Waste Management department. Moreover,after the meeting,the teams of senior officials supervise the pumping stations and canals. But this year,no such pre-monsoon meeting was held.”

Ironically,after the city was submerged,Chatterjee held two emergency meetings today at the KMC and discussed the situation with all the engineers in all the 15 boroughs of the corporation through video-conferencing. Besides,a new pump,brought from South Korea,was installed today in Palmer Bazzar Pumping Stations which had almost collapsed on Friday.

Chattaerjee said,“We have installed a a pump of 240 cusecs capacity in Palmer Bazzar pumping station. Besides,Bangur and Duttabagan pumping stations will help us pumping out water from the pockets of North Kolkata.”

An MmiC,pleading anonymity,told The Sunday Express,“Mayor is hardly available at the KMC headquarters. Apart from water-logging, there are several other issues which KMC needs to concentrate on during the monsoon. Several departments are involved in this work and the co-ordination among them is very important.”

Rupa Bagchi,leader of the Opposition at KMC,alleged stopping of desiltation work caused the failure of drainage system. But the KMC’s Drainage department claimed that tonnes of silt have been removed from the drains and sewers of the city. The engineers of the department,however,remained tight-lipped on the issue.

Significantly,the second phase of Project Nikashi,which involved desilting of clogged drains,setting up of pumping stations and installing auto-cleaning machines,is in complete disarray. In addition to this,the desiltation project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Scheme and upgradation of drain and sewage system under the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project are still far from completion.

The tall claims made by the KMC after it took up developmental projects of over Rs 600 crore to help the city get rid of water-logged streets were washed away after Friday downpour.