From social media posts to paper boat protest; Link Road residents question Silchar Municipality

Waterlogging is a serious problem, not only for small cities but even for metropolitans. Apart from the inconveniences that it causes, it also floats in miseries. During the rainy season, a lot of water-borne diseases spread in the neighbourhood.

The continuous knee-deep waterlogging and failure of its drainage for more than a week has enraged the residents of the Link Road area of Silchar town.

According to the locals, from the past 8 days, the area is under clogged water creating misery for the residents. From Lane 2 to the Link Road point at Sonai road, the whole road is flooded with water running inside the roadside low lying houses.

“We are suffering from the last 10 years and this time it’s beyond acceptance. From last 8 days we are surrounded by the stagnant water,” said a local resident, Kutush Paul, who was also seen in a viral video floating paper boat highlighting the inaction of municipality authorities. “Businesses here are running in loss due to waterlogging, with many shops inundated,” he added.

Another local, Saheli Deb, expressed, “In this pandemic, we are forced to live in an unhygienic environment surrounded by drain water. If we get infected who will take the liability.”

Asking questions to the ex-ward commissioner she said, “We heard he will go for protest. First, we want to see the insight of his 10 years’ work which has brought us to this situation.”

On contacting ward 16 Commissioner (term expired) Ashit Sarkar, he said that he has taken the issue with the district administration and will go for protest if “satisfactory” work is not done. “ADC Summit Sattawan along with Abhilash Barnawal and other officials visited the area yesterday night and I have explained to them all the root causes. I have informed them that we will wait for next 6 days and if satisfactory result is not seen then we will resort to democratic protest,” Sarkar said in a fuming voice.

On Sunday, Municipality reportedly deputed two JCBs on either side of Link Road (Sonai Road and Hailakandi Road) and cleared the blocks which clogged the drainage. Residents though expressed pleasure on it but opined there is a need for a permanent solution to the problem.