Silchar, Apr 6: Season's first spell of heavy rain pouring for the past few days has triggered fresh concerns for the residents of Silchar urbanscape as the downpour brought back the perennial problem of waterlogging again.
Heavy shower since late Tuesday night and most part of Wednesday morning inundated several low-lying areas and exposed the choked drains.
Residents of Ambikapatty, Church Road and other low-lying locations were seen wading through the waterlogged roads throughout the day undertaking severe hardship. Students were also hit by severe inconvenience caused due to the heavy shower.
"We were brutally damaged by the floods last year and once again with heavy rains, waterlogged roads are causing extreme inconvenience at the start of the rainy season. Hence we urge upon the Government to look into the matter so that the taxpaying residents of the second biggest urban sprawl in the state get good drainage facilities for living," said Joydeep Chakraborty, frontline member of Humans of Silchar group.
According to sources at the Water Resources Department, 22.80 mm rainfall was recorded till 8 am on Wednesday with water level at Annapurna Ghat registering figures of 10.51 metres against the Danger Level of 19.83 metres at that point.
Interestingly while, Rangirkhal, the principal sewage canal of the town is reportedly experiencing blockage due to trash and deposited waste with silt, authorities of the Water Resources Department informed that at present they have fund crunch to plunge into any kind of clearing work of the canal and other canals under their purview. "We are facing fund crunch and have submitted a proposal of Rs 56 lakh to our higher authorities. Once and when we get the money, we shall be able to clear the blocked canals," maintained a senior official of the department.
On the other hand, Cachar Deputy Commissioner Rohan Kumar Jha told The Assam Tribune that a state of the art super sucker machine is being procured under 15tg Finance Commission for solutions on the issue of clearing the clogged drains of the town. "The super sucker truck will be reaching us within next few days. Once operationalised, this machine will clear the clogged drains to ease the flow of water to a great degree," Jha said.
