Floods expose cracks in civic body’s monsoon preparations

Ranchi: The pre-monsoon showers, which lasted for two hours, on Saturday afternoon left several streets flooded, while drain water overflowed, thereby, exposing the civic body’s lack of preparedness ahead of the rainy season. Areas adjoining Karbala Chowk, Azad Basti, Daily market, Hazaribag road and Bahu Bazar were waterlogged.
Many shops on the either side of Karbala Chowk and Bahu Bazaar were inundated with drain water. Traders selling fruits at Daily market had to remove their stalls as water gushed into their makeshift shops.
One Abdul Hamid, a fruit seller in Daily market, said, “We were forced to close our shops as drain water seeped into our stalls. The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) hasn’t been doing enough to clear the drains. If this is the situation during a pre-monsoon shower, I wonder what would happen once the monsoon arrives.”
The commuters, also, were in for a harrowing time as waterlogged streets, coupled with the uprooting of trees, caused traffic snarls. Long queues of vehicles were spotted near Mukti Dham on Harmu bypass as a tree had fallen near the junction of Harmu river. Traffic DSP, along with RMC teams, rushed to the spot and removed the tree from the road, following which, traffic movement was restored.
In Bahubazar, traffic movement came to a standstill after a branch of tree fell on a parked e-rickshaw. No e-rickshaw driver was standing nearby when the tree fell. “I had parked my rickshaw and was standing under a tree shed to avoid getting wet in the rain when the branch fell on my vehicle,” driver Santosh Kumar said.
“We have sent our teams to areas where trees have got uprooted to clear the roads. We are even trying to clear the roads of drain water on a priority basis. All drains will be cleaned before the arrival of monsoon,” RMC’s deputy municipal commissioner Rajnish Kumar said.