JORHAT, July 16 - According top priority to the problem of artificial floods that occur in several parts of Jorhat town after a heavy downpour, the Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Virendra Mittal has constituted a committee headed by Jorhat Revenue Circle (East) officer Debahuti Bora, comprising officials of several government departments to monitor work undertaken to prevent water-logging.
Officials from Water Resources and Revenue departments, Jorhat Municipal Board, Jorhat Development Authority are members of the committee. Mittal told this correspondent that the committee will on a regular basis monitor work undertaken by the concerned departments to prevent water-logging.
Despite initiation of several steps by the district administration to tackle artificial floods since last year, several localities of the town got submerged last week after heavy rains lashed Jorhat on July 8 and 9. Areas along the Jail Road and TR Phukon Road, Bongal Pukhuri, Na-Ali and Lichubari localities came under water.
Steps like cleaning of several natural streams and big drains that were filled with garbage in and around the town, clearing encroachments in areas near such streams and drains have been carried out since last year by the administration.
Mittal said that committee will take stock of the progress of work carried out to tackle the problem of water-logging that occurs due to several factors. The DC said that the administration in recent timers has cleared few encroachments near the streams and drains, which were obstructing the flow of water and cause water to spill over to the roads and residential areas after a heavy downpour.
He said the administration was adopting a tough stand on the issue of encroachments and urged the civil society to cooperate in the drive to make the town a better place to reside.
He said due to steps undertaken since last year several areas including the DC office campus did came under water after the last week�s heavy rain.
On the other hand, a 15-member committee comprising government officials and senior citizens, which was constituted by the Speaker and Jorhat MLA Hitendra Nath Goswami, in January this year, is supervising construction of five big culverts in the town.
Increasing the size of the culverts has been done as a short term measure to minimise water logging and that leads to artificial floods.
