Mangaluru: Only a week remains until the monsoon season begins and in order for the water to flow without any hindrance, work on desilting the storm drains, repairing the drains and other emergency work have been completed by the city corporation.
But in reality, there is ample number of instances of officials doing mistakes in connection to taking essential precautionary measures in the city in the backdrop of every monsoon season. In the same way this time too, the work on desilting storm drains in the backdrop of the upcoming monsoon, is in progress within the limits of the corporation.
At some places, the public is complaining that the work is being done only for namesake. An example for this is the desilting work done along the biggest storm drain in the city which flows via Kadri, Ballabagh, Alape and Kudroli. There is no doubt that the storm drain desilting work has been done for nameaske in front of the eyes of public only to waste the public’s money. The contractors have failed to do the desilting work effectively. Due to this, there is a possibility that of potential flooding during this monsoon.
Rs 13 lakh tender
In order to prevent the recurrence of the flooding that occurred during the previous monsoon, precautionary measures have been taken and accordingly, desilting has been undertaken at all the storm drains in the city and drains are also being cleaned. But the contractors who won the tender are doing work only for namesake and have failed to properly desilt the storm drains.
The tender cost for desilting of the biggest storm drain passing by TMA Pai Convention Centre here is Rs 13,20,000 and work is only partly finished. But according to the rules, desilting must be carried out to the bottom of the storm drain to a depth of 1.5 meters. But no work has been done to the bottom of the drain here. Hence, because of the half-finished work, the city might face flooding this monsoon season too.
Silt dumped on private land
Along with desilting the storm drains, the contractor is also responsible to transport off the collected silt. But the company is dumping the silt on a private land close by to the storm drain in violation to the actual rule. This is causing much trouble to the people. By blatantly violating the rules stated during the tender process, the contractors are causing much trouble to the general public.
Negligent officials: Public in trouble
The artificial flooding that was experienced during the last monsoons, the highest damage was incurred in the regions of Mannagudda and Alape through which passes the storm drain and the desilitng work conducted here has been done only to the ground level. Since desilting has not been done to further depths, potential flooding is a possibility this monsoon too. If the work is done only for namesake, the bills incurred due to calamities during monsoon will only get costlier.
Desilting to be done again
“First time desilting work has been undertaken along all storm drains. But, since there are pipes at some locations, problems are being faced. The locals have demanded that desilting be done once again. Desilting will be done once again within a few days,” informed
Nityananda, Engineer
