Mohali under 4 ft of water, roads turn rivers

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 21

A downpour for around four hours not only left most of the town virtually submerged under nearly 4 ft of water but also exposed the hollowness of the local administration’s claims regarding their monsoon preparedness.

Even as hapless residents saw rainwater entering hundreds of houses across the town, the “clueless” authorities, including MC officials, administrative officers, fire brigade personnel and PCR staff, were missing from the scene.

“Nobody except the media is picking our phone calls. We don’t know whom to call up at this time of distress,” said panic-stricken residents while making distress calls to Chandigarh Tribune this morning.

Rainwater, up to the level of around 4 ft, was seen flowing in certain parts of Phase 3B2, 3B1, Phase V, Phase IV, Sectors 70 and 71 and the Airport Road area, turning roads into virtual rivers. What to talk of two-wheelers and small cars, even SUVs were seen floating in the “road rivers” with drivers losing control over their vehicles.

In Phase 3B2, cars and two-wheelers parked on streets were almost submerged in rainwater. Knee-deep rainwater entered hundreds of houses across the town and damaged household goods, including furniture, refrigerators, invertors and other such items worth several lakhs of rupees here.

The other worst-hit areas included Phases 1, 2, 3A, 3B1, 4, 5, 7, 9, Sector 66, 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71 and some parts of the Industrial Area. More than 1,000 vehicles broke down on roads around the town. The water pushed several vehicles on to the road divides and pavements.

“I saw several four-wheelers virtually floating on roads. This is the first time I saw so much water in the town,” said 20-year-old Karan, who was out with his friends to help the stranded people.Panic-stricken residents claimed they made hundreds of calls to the MC authorities, the fire brigade and the Police Control Room for help, but to no avail. “Nobody was there to listen to us,”they said. A local resident, Manjit Singh, said initially no official was picking up the phone. “And after some time when someone did, he asked us to call up another official. The game of passing the buck was on. When we called up the PCR after water entered our houses, the policeman told us to make a call to the fire brigade office. When we rang them (fire brigade) up, they said they would come only after the rain stopped. We helplessly saw the rainwater damaging our household items,” said Jasbir Singh Bir, a resident of Phase 3B1, who claimed that he suffered a loss of nearly Rs 4 lakh as several electronic items and newly bought furniture got damaged.Ashish Gupta, AS Bajwa, advocate Pawan Sharma and other residents of Phase 2 claimed that they suffered losses of several lakhs as the rainwater damaged furniture and household goods. Later, the fire brigade authorities pressed three fire enignes into service to help people in Phases 1, 3B2, and 5. 

AAP for Vigilance probe

On the failure of the authorities in tackling the rain aftermath despite spending crores of rupees on various projects in this regard, leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party and local MC councillor Kuljit Bedi demanded a Vigilance inquiry. “The authorities have spent crores of rupees on laying a new drainage at Phase 5 and construction of reservoirs equipped with pumps to deal with the water accumulation problem”, said councillor Kuljit Singh Bedi.