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Rains leave residents in a flood of woes

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 22 � A few days ago, people of Guwahati watched the catastrophe wrought by the unprecedented rainfall in the Kashmir Valley, which turned Srinagar and other urban centres of the State into �ghost towns� and uprooted lakhs from their homes.

Today, residents of the city experienced a situation, which, though comparably not as terrible as the one in Kashmir Valley, led to total disruption of normal life for the 10 lakh-plus citizens of the largest urban centre of the Northeast.

People across the city were heard using harsh words against the Kamrup Metro district authority, Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and senior civic officials, including the DC Dr M Angamuthu and GMC Commissioner S Viswanathan.

Residents complained that the authorities have repeatedly, over the past three months, made tall claims about steps to tackle artificial flooding and eviction drive, while in the ground nothing has changed at all.

�All the so-called action by the high-flying DC and his staff are nothing but drama and intended to befool the public. We are where we were three months back. Nothing has changed,� said a resident of Nabin Nagar, one of the worst affected localities.

He said that water entered inside houses in his locality since morning and there is no electricity since then.

�Normal life is at standstill. We are somehow managing to shelter on our beds with our family, including kids,� he said.

A resident of Down Town Hospital locality said the kind of waterlogging witnessed today was even greater than what the area had seen during the deluge of June this year.

�There was knee-deep water in the Zakir Hussain Path from the Down town bridge to Sarumataria. This had never happened before. The DC and other civic officials should come out of their air-conditioned bungalows and stay with us for a few days in our hovels and then he will know what the difference between real action to prevent flood and mere tomfoolery is,� he said.

Among the worst affected were women, children and the elderly. Schoolchildren especially had a harrowing time.

Similar was the experience of residents at almost all localities, including VIP Road, Panjabari, Six Mile, Dispur, Last Gate, Zoo Road, Nabin Nagar, Tarun Nagar, Anil Nagar, Chandmari, Geetanagar, among others.

A huge number of vehicles were left stranded on the roads after water entered their engines.

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