Shun complacency, make preparations before the rains

Should the civic body authorities be taken to task for their monsoon ill-preparedness?

Sue civic body officials for their negligence

The lack of monsoon preparedness on the part of the MC authorities leads to waterlogging in different areas of the city. It affects and damages the roads and houses. Even many lives are lost because of the same situation. Such is the sorry state of affairs. It is the apathy and corruption in the MC that is damaging civic affairs and infrastructure. They should definitely be taken to task and made to pay suitable penalties for not taking proper care of the city and its surrounding areas which fall in its ambit. Citizens should file legal suits against the MC authorities to make them aware of the pitiable condition of the people in the city during the monsoon season.

Dr JS Wadhwa

Govt must realise its duty and act on time

State has a very pivotal and significant role to play in providing basic amenities to citizens. People have been facing myriad problems ever since the onset of monsoon season that needs to be addressed by the civic authorities besides extending an olive branch to overcome the situation arising out of the Covid crisis. Most importantly, apart from catering to the basic health needs of the citizens falling in nature of proper sanitisation services, re-carpeting of roads, incessant electricity supply, avoid short-circuiting / high-voltage transmission of electricity, water-logging issue in narrow areas of the city needs to be addressed at the very outset without fall. Undeniably, the civic authorities in due exercise of their duties must be receptive, accessible and sensitive enough to address maximum public issues by discarding their recalcitrant, defiant and stubborn behaviour. State no doubt has taken admirable and commendable steps by introducing Public Grievance Portal (PB-PGRAMS) but still a lot needs to be done in the right direction suitably to avoid annoyance and harassment.

Sameer Bhatia

Civic body, PWD should make joint efforts

Water-logged streets, traffic chaos, submerged vehicles, fallen trees, disrupted power and telecommunication systems, collapsed roofs causing casualties and the spread of infections that exposes residents to a health crisis. Along with changing rain patterns accompanied by high-intensity winds, population pressure, unplanned and unauthorised urban development, dumping of household, industrial and construction waste near wetlands and water bodies that impedes the natural flow of water, uncleaned city drains, unseemly politicking, rampant corruption, rot in the daily working of civic bodies, administrative apathy and callousness, and the utter lack of political will are some of the major contributory factors. Despite spending huge amounts of money on developmental works, the situation on the ground level remains almost the same. It calls for serious introspection and pro-active measures. The Municipal Corporations, the PWD and the Irrigation Department should make joint efforts to set things right on priority basis. In case of their laggard performance, it is the responsibility of the educated and awakened citizens to take these civic bodies to task. They should demand proper response from the officials concerned and municipal commissioners for the solution of their problems and hold them accountable. To ensure tangible improvement in the functioning of municipal administration, the state government should also keep a close tab on their performance and send a clear signal that any sloppiness on public issues will not be tolerated at all.

D S Kang

Adopt rainwater harvesting system

We have perhaps accepted surroundings flooded with sewer water during rains as our fate during the monsoon every year. Now, when the monsoon has already arrived one can only hope that the civic authorities ensure that their men and machines reach every waterlogged area without any delay. Can’t say what parameters make a Smart City but the prerequisite of a clean city is its well-functioning sewage system. Outward make-up of city lanes by recarpeting or fixing tiles is fine but what Amritsar needs more is a revamped sewage system. If rainwater harvesting and setting up of sewage treatment plants are taken up as a priority, problems of inadequate/contaminated water supply will also be solved along with flooding of roads/streets. Some water for irrigation may also be there as a bonus.

HL Sharma

Urbanisation, climate change main culprits

Due to heavy downpour, speedy winds and sodden ground, streets and roads are inundated; cars are found abandoned; trees are uprooted and electric poles are knocked down; traffic and power supply is severely disrupted; houses and commercial buildings suffer structural damages, killing or injuring inmates; and life virtually comes to a standstill resulting in great economic loss. The reasons are not hard to find: extreme weather conditions owing to global warming, increasing population, large-scale migration to cities, unsustainable urbanisation and encroachments on the natural open spaces, green covers, parks and playgrounds that absorb excess rainfall, drastically diminishing traditional outlets for water, administrative and political nonchalance, and lack of transparency and accountability. Urban flooding is a challenging public issue that needs greater scrutiny and long-term planning. Rather than blaming climate changes, the local governing authorities should conserve city’s blue and green cover and ensure the holistic growth of cities; store flood water for urban use; revamp the old and overwhelmed sewer and drainage systems; and give timely warning to people to prepare for the severity of monsoon events. The government should enhance budgetary allocation to the cash-strapped MCs for upgrading infrastructural facilities and break the unholy nexus between politics, land mafia and organised crime that wreaks havoc on city’s eco-balance. People should be conscious about the promotion of their interests at the hands of public servants. The higher authorities should take strict action against the egregiously corrupt and non-performing municipal officials, commissioners and contractors.

Tajpreet S Kang

Unplanned urbanisation reason behind mess

The early signs of monsoon season raised the anxiety of residents in some flood-prone areas of the city. It is a pity that city roads get flooded even after a short spell of rain. Although the problem turns acute every passing year, the corporation has been unable to find a solution. The civic body did take up the annual exercise of cleaning up some stretches of the major drains and sewers in the city. But these works taken up in bits and pieces have never been comprehensive enough to tackle the problem. Cities are expanding and engulfing the open areas which were major drainage points or forests in the past. We see this happening in most of the cities in Punjab. So, when there are excessive rains, cities are not able to drain the water and hence many areas get inundated. The Municipal Corporation plays a critical role in the decision making of a city’s master plan and directing its growth with the support of urban planners. Urban planning intends to make a city function efficiently, by marking layouts and zones in a city, designing networks of mobility, water supply, electricity, sanitation and drainage. Sometimes the focus of making efficient cities overshadows conserving its natural resources. To accommodate a growing city’s population or cater to real estate greed the natural repositories are converted into buildings, roads or transport systems. So, these climate and human events superimpose on bad urban planning which has slowly engulfed environmental resources while building more and more.

Parampreet Kaur

Tall claims of MC fall flat every year

Every year before the advent of monsoon, the civic administration makes tall claims of being well-equipped to deal with any eventuality. The reports on the other hand present an extremely dismal picture. What to talk of heavy rainfall, even due to mild showers, roads are submerged with water and huge potholes appear at many places. Quite often, sewer pipes get choked and manholes are left uncovered. Such negligence on the part of the MC staff not only causes severe traffic ordeals to public but fatal accidents. People living in congested localities where basic facilities such as proper drainage system and sanitation are lacking are at a higher risk of infection during waterlogging conditions. It is really amazing that nowadays when technology provides almost accurate weather forecasting, officials responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the infrastructure do not pay timely attention to the warning bells. While the citizens are bearing all kind of taxes, they cannot be left to suffer the unpleasant incidents merely by tagging it to the vagaries of inclement weather. The civic authorities must be held accountable and punished for indifferent attitude and carelessness towards such vital issues of public interest.

Nirmaljit Singh Chatrath

Set up SPV to clean city drains

Waterlogged roads and overflowing sewers have become a common sight every year during the monsoon. Given the unprecedented expansion of the city over the last few years and rising threat of climate change, the civic body should construct underground rainwater storage tanks at critical points to considerably reduce waterlogging during heavy rainfall. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) should be set up to clean the city’s drains and prevent waterlogging on roads. The city’s municipal corporation should ensure prompt remedial action in case of drainage congestion and must be well-equipped to deal with any eventuality on account of heavy rain. Deploying smart water management tools could also be effective in tackling the problem of water logging as these would interpret statistics from water-logged points and provide a holistic picture with robust real-time analytics.In the long-run, building rules and codes must also emphasise on storm water use wherever possible.

Akash Kumar

Planning must to deal with this problem

It is the duty of the Municipal Corporation and the Municipal Committees to remove the waste from the chambers and clean the sewer pipes throughout the year with machines. However, these are only temporarily measures to tackle the problem. Proper planning is needed to deal with the issue.

Rajat Kumar Mohindru

Make MC officials accountable for their negligence

• It’s a familiar story every monsoon, just a few hours of rains and our big cities get inundated. The urban horror story is made worse by the fact that huge amount of money are spent on advertising desilting city drains every year. In fact with Covid related restrictions in place this year, there was hope to do better job of preparing for monsoon rains. But even when monsoon was quite delayed, streets were flooded after just a few spells of heavy rains
• Many blame unplanned urbanisation and too much construction for waterlogging, which of course is true but it’s not a problem that can be fixed in a few months. Some improvement is possible by upgrading storm water drain designs. Current drain designs take into account only of one or two years flood levels, this must change so that drains can cater to greater volume of run-off from heavier showers in short bursts
• It makes a good sense to make city storm water management a part of larger infrastructure development policies such as Smart City mission. The civic authorities and municipal administration be made accountable for their negligence and lack of serious attitude through the ward councillors. They can play a very vital part in this regard if they are informed about the problems being faced by the residents of the area LJ Singh

QUESTION

India’s performance at the Olympics has been best so far as it won highest number of medals ever, clinching the first gold in athletics and finishing on podium in men’s hockey after 41 years. Do you think the governments (Centre and states) are doing enough to support players and what steps should they take to take India to the top-10 in the medal tally at the 2024 Paris Olympics?

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by Thursday (August 13)