Field Ganj residents rue losses as water enters homes, shops

Even though there has not been continuous heavy rain in this part of the region in the last 24 hours, the miseries of residents in areas where water had entered houses and shops, refuses to come to an end. Five days on, houses and shops remain waterlogged, with garbage floating in the streets and sewerage back-flowing. Sadly, neither the authorities concerned nor the elected representatives have reached out to the residents of Field Ganj. Residents, virtually on the verge of bursting into tears, said they were bearing losses worth lakhs as water had entered their godowns, damaging stocks.

A visit to the kuchas (the streets) revealed the tough times being faced by the residents. At the same time, they repeatedly requested not to mention their names, else they would be in trouble.

“But the fact remains that neither the authorities nor the elected representative visited the area in the last five days. We are bearing huge losses. Entire stocks were damaged due to the water. I have a cosmetics shop, water entered my shop, damaging everything Who should I blame? The authorities will never provide compensation. Look at the garbage heap where I have thrown the cosmetics as these are of no use now,” said the owner of a cosmetics shop in Kucha Number 7, wishing anonymity.

This is not the only street where water entered shops. Starting from street number 5-9 and a few others, the excessive water damaged stocks in shops, which are located in relatively low-lying areas.

Harpreet Singh, another shopkeeper, rued that there was no drainage and each year they had to face a similar problem. “But this time, the intensity is high. Had there been proper drainage, had sewers been clean and garbage lifted timely, things would have been different and we would have been saved the trouble,” rued Singh.

The residents also complained that safai karamcharis had started demanding Rs 500-700 to lift the garbage from outside houses or shops.

It may be mentioned here that while in the past five days, no officials concerned had reached out to the residents of the area to resolve the issue, once videos and pictures of the situation were sent to the authorities concerned by The Tribune, MC officials and the area councillor swung into action and safai karamcharis and workers arrived with fogging and suction machines today.

Councillor and Deputy Mayor Rakesh Prashar said that he along with his workers was visiting several areas round the clock. “We have come today and the work has already started. By tomorrow evening, the streets will be properly cleaned, we have deputed our workers. We have limited stock of machines and workforce, so they are being deputed as per need in various areas. We can’t control natural calamities,” said Prashar.