JORHAT, July 25 - Over 250 residences, schools, government offices, market places and lanes in most of the 19 municipal wards of Jorhat town reeled under the impact of waterlogging on Friday after a heavy downpour lashed the urban localities on Thursday night.
According to scientists of the Agricultural Meteorology Department of the Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat recorded 122.9 mm rainfall on Friday, which was found to be the highest amount of rainfall on a single night during this monsoon.
With incessant rainfall from Thursday night till Friday morning, the storm water from overflowing drains inundated lanes and residential premises at Dorongichuk, Choladhara Rupali Nagar, Tarajan Kakoty Gaon, Sonari Gaon, Chandan Nagar, Tarajan Brahman Gaon and other municipal areas. The entire Club Road area had been submerged in ankle-deep water till Friday evening. Low-lying premises on both sides of the road remained under knee-deep water for the entire length of the day on Friday. Outside the municipal localities, the worst affected areas have been identified as Borpool Gohain Tekela Gaon, Sandoi Tekela Gaon and other places along the AT Road.
�Nowadays, rainfall for a couple of hours is enough to inundate residential campuses in the municipal areas. Several drains are clogged and the two main canals of the Tocklaijan and Tarajan rivulets have been blocked due to encroachment. Neither government officials, nor the local MP and MLA have formulated any effective plan to remove the illegal constructions over the two rivulets as the encroachers are providing financial help to politicians during elections,� alleged an elderly citizen of the waterlogged Kakoty Gaon area.
Asked if any plan has been chalked out to find a solution to the recurrent problem of artificial floods and waterlogging, a few officials of the district administration only reiterated that they would conduct a survey with the help of engineers of the Water Resources Department, Public Works Department (Roads) and officials of the Jorhat Municipal Board on July 27 to locate the blockades on drains and the two canals.
In response to repeated appeals from the Sachetan Nagarik Mancha of Jorhat, the district administration in a meeting on Thursday gave an assurance to sole the problem of artificial floods and waterlogging in the urban localities of the town.
