Torrential rain has houses, outlets in Jalandhar'sposh localities under water

Early morning torrential rain spelt doom for city residents, especially for residents and showroom owners of posh Model Town, New Jawahar Nagar, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Urban Estate and Defence Colony.

Residents of these colonies said they had never seen the kind of waterlogging that happened this morning. Rainwater entered the houses, cafes and showrooms, leading to a loss of crores of rupees of the owners.

The residents said they were awake since 2 am when it started raining heavily. By 2:30 am, rainwater started accumulating on roads and within minutes, it entered their premises. Owing to the poor drainage system, several showrooms in the basements of Model Town had 8-12 feet of water by 3 am.

Jaspreet Singh, owner of an electronic goods showroom, is learnt to have suffered a loss of over Rs 1 crore as all his gadgets, including mobile phones, speakers and air purifiers, were found to be floating in 6-8 feet water by the time he reached his shop.

"I came to the shop at 3 am and realised that the damage had been done. The waterlogging in the shop has left me devastated. I do not know how and when I shall be able to recover from it", he kept saying to himself.

Samrat, owner of Rave Cafe, said 5-7 feet water had accumulated in his cafe's basement. All my furniture, coffee machines and other gadgets were in water. "It has been eight hours since I have been trying to get suction pumps to pull out water. It is a huge loss for me. Poor drainage and accumulation of rainwater in front of my cafe led to the trouble", he rued.

Shopkeepers in the Model Town market were seen trying to drain out water mechanically and put up bags of sand to prevent more water from entering their premises. Even the official houses of Mayor and Municipal Corporation Commissioner in Model Town had rainwater. Rajiv Duggal, president of the Model Town Market Association, said, "Our area suffered the maximum damage in today's rain".

A resident of Defence Colony, Congress leader Angad Dutta, said rainwater entered several houses and shops in the locality. He blamed MC officials for their lackadaisical approach.

The shopkeepers of Central Town and Mai Hiran Gate too complained of rainwater damaging their items. The Jalandhar bus stand too had two feet deep water in the entire parking lot. Even the platforms where commuters wait for the buses to arrive had water flowing all over. Most government offices had rainwater seeping in through roofs.

Power shutdown

The MC authorities said they had received several complaints of buildings getting collapsed. Several trees have got uprooted, blocking roads. The PSPCL lines also got snapped and power remained disrupted in the city for five to eight hours. Several localities, including Old Baradari, Makhdoompura, Urban Estate and Model Town, had no power for several hours.

Vehicles suffer huge damage

Trucks, cars, etc suffered a huge damage. The vehicles got stuck in the muck on roads. A BMW car could not restart for over an hour after it stopped in the Model Town market. A car suffered huge damaged as a wall along which it was parked in Kabir Nagar fell upon it.

DC takes stock

DC Dr Himanshu Aggarwal visited various parts of the city to take stock of the situation. He was accompanied by MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi. The DC revealed that more than 200 complaints of water entering homes and basements had been received at the flood control room. The rainwater has been discharged into the Kala Sanghia drain, which further flows into the Sutlej.

MLA Pargat remains on toes

“At such a critical time, people do not need excuses — they need reassurance and urgent action. I stand firmly with my people and demand that the government and district administration act immediately,” said Jalandhar Cantt Congress MLA Pargat Singh as he kept going around whole day in the city in various localities offering them a helping hand.

He said that 15–20 villages were submerged overnight in his constituency as thousands of acres of crops were destroyed, and homes in Uddopur, Bajhua, and Khun-Khun were inundated. With the the Pholriwal treatment plant shutting down, urban Jalandhar also faced waterlogging, he added. In New Jawahar Nagar, he helped a woman push her scooter out of flood waters. In Model Town, he supervised pumping operations to clear basements and homes.