Residents find slips in cleaning of road gullies

CHANDIGARH: The municipal corporation is on its toes to clean the road gullies before monsoon but the residents are unhappy with the work on the ground. The Federation of Sector Welfare Associations of Chandigarh (Foswac) is going to press upon the civic authorities for working faster.
The MC officials associated with the project said the cleaning of road gullies had started on May 15 and all officials concerned of the area had outsourced the work to contractors. The civic authorities claim to have pressed more workers into the cleaning assignment in all sectors, based on requirement. The said the city was sloped north to south, which created points where water accumulation was of a serious level.

A survey report that the authorities prepared about the swamped points in the city includes a few sections of uneven road, where road gullies remain blocked. The surface of the parking lot in front of the Sector-17 bus stand is higher than the road gully. Similarly, in the Sector-11 market as well, the roads are much higher than the road gully, due to which the problem fo water accumulation becomes an issue in the area.

The authorities are focusing on clearing these areas before the rains. Sources in the civic body also said the corporation had told the Chandigarh Administration about the need to increase the capacity of the N-choe seasonal stream that originates in Chandigarh and runs across the Leisure Valley to Kajheri and Mohali before merging into the Ghaggar river. The corporation has asked the administration for desilting the choe to increase its water-carrying capacity.

Foswac general secretary J S Gogia said it was strange that the civic authorities delayed cleaning the road gullies every year and resident welfare associations had to raise the matter with them. He said: “The major issue is that even though the contractor’s men have started the cleaning of the road gullies, the garbage collected near these points is not removed for a long time.”

Sector-38-west resident Manmohan Luthra said: “It’s not about the cleaning of the road gullies also but also about the need for repairing of some of gullies to open up these channels. The municipal authorities should get all the road gullies cleaned before pre-monsoon showers. Let’s not wait until monsoon.”

In the dock

I'll have a meeting with the officials on Monday to review the status of the cleaning of the road gullies. I will ask them to create a system of lifting of the garbage after the cleaning work is over, so that the area remains tidy.

Kanwarjeet Singh | chairman, water supply & sewage disposal committee