Rain a pain for Panchkula, people fear flood-like situation

PANCHKULA: With heavy rain lashing the city on Thursday morning, residents in various parts of Panchkula, especially Sector-19, faced a lot of trouble due to water logging — as they do every year during the rains.
The residents of Sector-19 fear if more rain takes place, there would be flood-like situation in their area, and alleged that nothing concrete has been done by the administration here, though the issue of water logging and rainwater entering their houses has been an annual pain.
They said the situation is in the knowledge of the municipal corporation officials, as they have raised innumerable complaints regarding this, but to no avail.
Raahil Singh, a resident of Sector-19, said, “In every rain, we have to face the problem. We keep standing outside the house, be it day or night, to prevent rainwater from entering the house by using motors and buckets to push it away. We are facing the same situation again.”
A group of residents said they have already put their beds and other furniture in the house on bricks to save them from getting destroyed in the rainwater entering their houses. Anita Mehta said, “All furniture we purchased during my wedding got destroyed during the rains last year as water had entered our house. Same situation was repeated this morning.”
They alleged that due to poor coordination between the civic body and Huda officials, the situation does not improve here.
When contacted, the officials concerned said they had cleared the drains before the monsoon, but the problem is that the drainage pipe is narrow towards it opening in Baltana in Mohali of Punjab. So, when the flow is high, water logging happens here, they said.
“We have seen workers cleaning the drainage pipes, but it is only a temporary solution as the problem persists,” said Mohit Kumar, another resident of Sector-19.
Besides, people also face water-logging problem at the city’s roundabouts. The officials, however, said though water logging is there for half an hour after heavy rain, it disappears soon, as all road/gully drains have been cleared.