Waterlogging in Patna with onset of monsoon, Nitish visits sump houses

Several areas of Patna witnessed waterlogging due to intermittent rains with the onset of monsoon, following which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday visited different sump houses in the city as he reviewed the preparedness to deal with the situation.

Several areas of Patna witnessed waterlogging due to intermittent rains with the onset of monsoon, following which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday visited different sump houses in the city as he reviewed the preparedness to deal with the situation. Patna received 83.4 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours till 8.30 am, leaving many areas of the city such as Rajendra Nagar, Bahadurpur, Punaichak, Rajvanshi Nagar and Nala Road inundated, as per the weather office.

Angry residents said just the beginning of monsoon has led to such waterlogging, whereas the whole season awaits. Three days of torrential rains in September last year left many areas of Patna submerged for several days.

"I don't know what the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) or the departments concerned were doing all these months. The PMC made tall claims that waterlogging as witnessed last year will not recur... We are simply living in gods mercy," said Abhay Kumar, a resident of the Rajvanshi Nagar area, which was visited by Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav in the afternoon. Miffed with the civic body, a resident of Nala Road said, they (PMC officials) will never mend their ways until and unless they die of the problems they created.

The monsoon hit Bihar on June 13 and covered the entire state by June 18, a Meteorological (MeT) Department official said. The monsoon is expected to be normal this year in Bihar, he added.

Amid anger among people due to the waterlogging, the chief minister visited different sump houses in the city to take stock of the situation. Among the sump houses he visited are those located in Patliputra, Yogipur, Pahari and Badshahi Payeen. Kumar, who was accompanied by many senior officials, including Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar during the visit, gave several directions to them regarding the menace of waterlogging.

During the visit to Yogipur drainage pumping plant and NBCC plant, Urban Development Departments Secretary Anand Kishore informed the chief minister that water is being drained out from the Kankerbagh area. Kumar gave directions to the officials to ensure uninterrupted power supply so that pumping out of water is not affected, while asking them to deploy technicians in adequate numbers.

Kumar, who also inspected Pahari sump house, asked officials to make alternate arrangements to drain out water to the other side of the Bypass area in order to prevent it from waterlogging. After inspecting Badshahi Nala, the chief minister directed the officials concerned to release only treated water into the Punpun river, which flows into Ganga.

He directed them to construct a 'pucca' boundary alongside Badshahi Nala, besides carrying out plantation drive on the banks. Many parts of the city, particularly Rajendra Nagar and Kankerbagh, remained submerged for days following last year's September rainfall as sump houses did not work properly.

The problem was further confounded with the choked sewer lines of the city. The chief minister had on June 13 directed officials to take steps regarding waterlogging and floods.

Nearly a dozen districts in north Bihar were ravaged by flash floods last year, following torrential rains in the catchment areas of Nepal.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)