Mohmad Faisal
Srinagar
Despite tall claims of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) about immediate draining of the rain water from city, for the third consecutive day today City is flooded in rain water.
A day before Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials said that they are putting every effort to drain the rain water from submerged areas and within a day the situation will be normal in civil lines of Srinagar city, but today situation has not changed much, the areas are still submerged.
While taking a look around the city most of the roads, lanes were water logged and even some of the link roads were not cleared of snow making local residents and commuters angry.
Areas like, Hari Singh High Street, Magarmal Bagh, Residency Road, Polo-view, and Amira Kadal Sarai Bala are under water from last three days, the residents of these areas are themselves trying to drain the water but found difficult due to inefficient drainage system.
Residents across the City accused SMC of not being prepared despite being aware about the damaged drainage network and the weather.
Talking to Kashmir life some of the shopkeepers in the city Centre complained that snow is cleared from the middle of the roads but not from the road sides. The snow after melting results in water logging of the roads blocking the inlet of the drains which causes immense problems to the shopkeepers as well to the commuters.
Some tourists also complained about the water logging and said that the water logging caused inconvenience to their movement.
Callers from Barbarshah area of Srinagar city informed Kashmir Life that the entire lanes were water logged through-out the day. The people were restricted to move from their homes as the level of water was up to 6 – 8 inches. Residents were unable to reach the Masjids to offer daily prayers and even couldn’t shop the necessary commodities.
Similar reports were received from Batamaloo area of the city. “The snow from all lanes and bye-lanes was left unattended until late evening except for Sidiqabad locality where, due to the efforts of local municipal official, snow was cleared from roads in the afternoon,” a resident said.
Not only residential colonies, but business and traffic movement continued to suffer due to the waterlogging in different areas in City Centre giving tough times to drivers and commuters to move through the water-logged roads.
Residents from areas Hyderpora, Tangpora, Bemina, Jawahar Nagar, Natipora, Eid-gah, 90-feet Road and several other places also said that that their areas are still underwater, and for an eyewash authorities worked for an hour and left.
Sources from the SMC said that although they are trying hard to drian the rain water, but lack of manpower and not having enough de-watering pumps leaves them helpless.
“SMC does not have enough manpower and equipment to coup with the challenges like waterlogging,” they said.
