Parts of Silchar under water; administration blames low culverts, encroached drains and garbage

Take a walk around the statue of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das in Silchar’s National Highway Road area, in Sonai Road or Link Road or Amibcapatty. The drainage is clogged and water is flowing ankle deep in most of the areas. Same old story, just a new monsoon. Oh wait, there is one difference this time. The previous Municipality Board got dissolved so it is the district administration in charge. You do not have a Municipality Board to hold responsible, but of course, you can blame yourself!

“Garbage dumped in the drain is one of the biggest reasons why we are witnessing waterlogging today,” said Abhilash Baranwal, additional deputy commissioner of Cachar and in charge of Silchar Municipality Board. The garbage is dumped by both residents of the city and the business establishments again run by the people who are probably driving through the water today.

He added that the culvert built near the National Highway point is too low for the water to flow freely. “The drains and outlets we have are enough to avoid immediate waterlogging provided they are clean and utilised to the full capacity,” Baranwal added.

Silchar MLA Dilip Paul, in 2018 had said that the master drainage programme will get delayed. However, while speaking at an en event in Gandhi Bag, Paul promised a solution by 2019. “The woes of water-logging in Silchar is likely to continue this year as the master drainage project is yet to be implemented. I will not give false hopes but the master drainage project will take time to come into action. I understand that the situation is very likely to worsen this year but I promise we will find a solution by next year,” Paul had said in 2018.

Cut to 2020, waterlogging is still a pain. “You cannot deny that the things have improved from what it used to be,” said Baranwal while referring to Shillongpatty which is yet to get drowned. He feels that cross-department consultation and coordination have helped in improving the drainage conditions. However, he feels a little more planning is desirable.

It often happens that one department’s development activities emerge as an obstruction for another. PHE pipes that pass through the drains are an example of that. The officers responsible for ensuring the drains are clean allege that those PHE pipes are a big reason why drains get clogged. They also feel PWD built slabs on drains are engineered so poorly that it becomes very difficult for them to lift the slabs in order to clean the drains.

Encroachment has always been an issue in Silchar. Community halls and business establishments that carry out transaction worth crores have built concrete settlements on the drains. Municipality boards change, government change, MPs change. MLAs change, the story of eviction drives hitting a roadblock when it comes to powerful people does not change. Those establishments still stand firm and tall.

“We can solve the drainage issue with a collective effort, it is better than what it was and there are projects in the pipeline that can solve the issue for at least the 50 years,” adds says Abhilash Barnawal.

Well, let’s wait and hope for the best then.