Rainwater floods localities, exposes tall claims of PMC

PATNA: A single day of rainfall flooded roads and several localities in the city.
Rainwater entered several households, hospitals and vaccination centres, putting a question mark over the civic body’s tall claims of pre-monsoon preparedness.
Waterlogged roads and overflowing drains obstructed movement of people and raise concern of severe health hazard.
The city received 92mm rainfall in 24 hours.
Areas of Rajendra Nagar, Patrakar Nagar, Hanuman Nagar, Shastri Nagar, AG colony and several other parts of the city are faced with severe waterlogging situation.
At AG colony, transmission wires were seen dipped in clotted drains along the road.
Heavy rain and waterlogging restricted public attendance at vaccination centres around the city.
Additional commissioner of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) Devendra Prasad Tiwari said, “The PMC workers are continuously pumping out accumulated rainwater from different areas.
Rainwater is being drained out from waterlogged areas in 2-3 hours.
” Arvind Kumar, PMC city manager, said the civic body has already deployed its pumps to drain out water from flood-prone areas.
“We have also installed temporary drainage pumping systems at these places,” he added.
Despite the claims of officials, visuals of waterlogging and clotted drains emerged from several parts.
Most streets at Shastri Nagar had knee-deep water.
Major portions of the vaccination centre at Shastri Nagar’s K V Sahay School were inundated.
Neelu Kumari, an auxiliary nurse midwife deputed at the vaccination centre, said, “Less than 50% of beneficiaries came to the centre on Thursday.
Even staff faced difficulties in reaching the centre,” she said, adding a vaccine kit with 10 vials can only be opened when there are at least 10 people to take jabs.
Sanjeev Kumar, who had come to the centre to get his wife vaccinated, said, “We waited for hours before my wife was finally vaccinated at 3.
30pm.
” Dheeraj Kumar, a coach at Patna Golf Club and resident of Shastri Nagar, had a tough time draining out rainwater, which gushed into her house.
“We kept our two kids on the bed and cooked food on the same bed.
We face similar situation every year during monsoon as drains are not cleared on time.
Even slight rain results in waterlogging in the area.
No PMC official visited this area to check waterlogging on Friday,” he said.
At Rajiv Nagar, locals said the civic body has been more active this time as compared to last year when it comes to de-silting the main drain.
“The internal roads, however, continued to face waterlogging.
The interiors of Rajiv Nagar are prone to waterlogging,” said Sanjay Kumar Roy, a local.