One heavy rainfall, and most of Silchar drowns; loopholes in drainage system exposed

We are in the month of May; this is the time when Rain God blesses Barak Valley with heavy showers. The first episode of downpour last night left Silchar worried for days ahead. Few hours of heavy showers left most of Silchar under knee deep water. Heart of the town Shillongpatty, highly populated residential area Link Road, Itkhola, India Club, Church Road, Ambicapatty, Sonai Road and many other important areas witnessed severe waterlogging today morning.

People had to either change their route or pass through the water in order to reach their destination. Silcharians are irked by the city’s condition and as usual, all of them went on to Facebook to vent. Many questioned the role of government and few went on to mock the pre-election campaign slogan by posting “ Aagaye Acche Din”. Master drainage plan was a part of BJP’s Assam manifesto and many even questioned that. The party at the center won Assam Assembly elections in 2016 with absolute majority and Silchar expected the master drainage plan to be executed, which has not materialised yet.

In fact, MLA Silchar constituency and deputy speaker of Assam Assembly, Dilip Paul a couple of months back mentioned that the master drainage plan will not be executed this year and people of Silchar will have to suffer waterlogging this year too. Paul, while addressing a huge gathering in Gandhi Bhavan Silchar during a summit said, “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.” He also assured that he would be assigning the master drainage implementation project to a trusted national-level agency.

It must be mentioned here that the municipality did deploy workforce to clear the drainage and drain out the waterlogging. As per latest information, in most parts of the city water has been drained off from the road and vehicular traffic is back to normalcy. Sonai Road and Hailakandi Road will take some time while in Shillongpatty water will be drained out completely in about an hour is what we got to know from Municipality board sources.

This year, Silchar might see the worst, Municipality board is in an internal mess, the workers did not receive their wages since very long and often they call for demonstration and strikes, which disrupts routine work impacting cleanliness, hygiene and drainage. While it is easy to blame the administration and shed light on the shortcomings of the government, the citizens of Barak Valley also must share some blame. Increase in the usage of plastic and non-biodegradables is the main reason behind drain blockages. Also, very few people use dustbins; instead dump garbage anywhere and everywhere.

BarakBulletin.com reached out to both Dilip Paul and the Municipality board. While Paul was unavailable to comment, Silchar municipality board commissioner, Rajesh Das told us that teams are deployed on the ground and they are clearing all the major blockages. “All the drains are packed and that is the main reason why we are suffering from waterlogging today and will suffer in future too,” said Das.

It is certain that Municipality will blame the administration and the political fraternity will point fingers towards municipality and that will make good headlines, but that, for the people suffering from waterlogging will bring no respite. So, all the residents alongside questioning the government, municipality and the administration, should restrict usage of plastic.