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Citizens bear brunt of inter-departmental mismatch

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 14 � Blocking of the main drain on GNB Road opposite the Panbazar overbridge point by the PWD has caused severe resentment among the local people of the area. Not just the water supply has been hit in the area for the past five days, drain water too is flooding houses along the Saraswati Road.

People, mostly confused about the sudden drain digging and removal of footpath slabs are infuriated over the whole episode as ASEB had erected two electricity posts in the drain itself, blocking a considerable area.

Expressing deep concern over the issue, Ajoy Dutta, former MLA and vice president of the Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) said that for past several days, people are not getting drinking water as the underground water supply line has been affected due to the drain digging on the GNB Road.

�Lack of co-ordination between the authorities looking after road construction and civic facilities is the root cause of the problems gripping the citizens. We approached many agencies like GMC and ASEB and realized that there was a serious lack of co-ordination among them,� he said.

When contacted, the Executive Engineer of PWD DK Pathak said that the drain is being diverted in view of the additional Railway over bridge in Panbazar. �The original plan was to divert the drain towards the southern side. But as a multilevel car parking is coming up in the Assam Text Book Corporation field, the drain had to be diverted on the other side,� he said.

He further said that water supply pipe restoration work can start by tonight as the water from the drain would be pumped out.

Till today, three people have fallen in the drain and two of them were seriously injured. Moreover, residents of Swagat Complex � the building in front of which the footpath has been opened for excavation, are feeling unsafe as it is very difficult to cross the wide drain over two narrow and wobbly slabs.

�I am not able to take my ailing mother to the doctor because of this drain work. She is not in a position to cross the drain on the narrow slab,� said Nazima Imran, advocate and a resident of Swagat Complex. Many other locals, mostly elderly people and children are facing difficulty because of the position of the drain. The residents also complained that before taking this decision, the local people were not even informed.

�We asked the workers, who did not even know which department or agencies was conducting the work. Even the GMC was not informed about this work till we approached them,� Dutta said.

The work was stopped on the site after intervention of the PWD and GMC authorities.

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