E-Paper
Will someone clean the silt dumped on city roads?
AFTER THE contentious issue of cleaning of drains, now the removal of silt dumped on the city roads has become a major cause of concern for the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC).
AFTER THE contentious issue of cleaning of drains, now the removal of silt dumped on the city roads has become a major cause of concern for the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC).
Heaps of silt lying on roads is a common sight all over the city. The silt was left there despite strict orders issued by municipal commissioner Badal Chatterjee to remove the silt when the drains were cleaned.
Apart from this, cleaning of ditches in lanes and by-lanes of the city has also become a problem for KMC officials. Besides, the quintessential work of cleaning of drains is also going on at a snail pace. The Engineering department of KMC has the responsibility of cleaning 125 drains while the Health department has the responsibility of cleaning 309 drains.
The slow progress of work can be accessed by the fact that both the departments have failed to complete their work even though the month of June is about to end. More than 20 per cent of the work of both departments is still incomplete while silt of most of the drains cleaned is yet to be removed.
Resentment is growing over undue delay in the cleaning of drains and residents of Kalyanpur have decided to go on indefinite hunger strike from June 30 in protest against non-cleaning of drains in the area where the work is yet to start.
The drain has become of bone contention between KMC and Kanpur Development Authority (KDA). With the two bodies passing the buck to each other, the work is yet to start.
Local BJP leader Ashok Singh stated that municipal commissioner Badal Chatterjee and KDA officials were shirking responsibility. Even the assurance given by divisional commissioner Anita Bhatnagar Jain had failed to resolve the issue, he said.
She had promised that a joint meeting between the KMC and KDA officials would be convened to resolve the issue. But such a meeting is yet to take place,” said Singh.
As a last resort, residents of Kalyanpur had decided to go on an indefinite hunger strike from Friday, stated Singh.
On several occasions water overflowing from this drain has entered the houses of local residents and a major outbreak of any disease in the area in near future cannot be ruled out.
