Season’s 1st downpour washes away MC’s tall claims, Sonepat waterlogged

The first downpour of the current monsoon season on Saturday washed away tall claims of cleaning of drains by the Municipal Corporation in Sonepat. Today, the district recorded the highest rain of this monsoon.

Rai block recorded the maximum rain of 140 mm today followed by Sonepat (112 mm). Residents faced a lot of problems due to water accumulation on all residential and main roads in the city. The heavy rain began in the wee hours on Saturday and continued till afternoon. While Kharkhoda recorded 54 mm rain, Gannaur 52 mm and Khanpur Kalan 43 mm, Gohana recorded the lowest rain (12 mm).

The main roads, including Shani temple underpass, Kakroi Chowk near Shambhu Dayal school, Mama-Bhanja chowk, Geeta Bhawan chowk, Gurdwara road, Suri petrol pump road, Old DC road, Sector 14, 15, Model Town and other city areas, were filled with water.

The bus stand was also waterlogged. At some places, the roads were under 2-3 ft of water due to which people’s vehicles were stuck in the middle of the road. Many people were seen pushing their vehicles out of the water. Markets put up on the occasion of Rakshabandhan were hit by the heavy rain.

The government had made arrangements for free travel for women on Rakshabandhan. As a result, there was a huge rush at the bus stand. But the passengers, including a huge number of women commuters, faced problems as the bus stand was submerged.

The patch work to fill the potholes on Old DC road were washed away due to the downpour, doubling the problems of the residents today. The traffic also got disrupted after which police personnel came onto the city roads in knee-deep water and made efforts to smoothen the flow of traffic.

Harshit Kumar, Sonepat MC Commissioner, said that such heavy rain was unexpected in the city. All machineries and men were pressed into service at all major points to drain out the water. All engineering wing officials were also in the field. Storm water is being drained out in the STP at Rathdhana and Kakroi road.

Rajiv Jain, Mayor, Sonepat, visited several water disposal units and inspected the motors there. He directed MC officials to speedily dispose of rain water from the roads and residential colonies in the city.

Similarly in Panipat, the rain began on Saturday morning and several residential areas -– Model Town, near Kisan Bhawan, NH-44 and other areas — got waterlogged. Teams of the Municipal Corporation and the district administration were deployed in the field to drain out the rainwater from the city area.