(Left to right) Nand Kishore Yadav, Prem Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi at the meeting in Patna on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, May 27: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today held a high-level meeting at the old secretariat on the issue of waterlogging and drinking water problem.

He has ordered not to start any road and trench cutting after June 30 to curb the problem of waterlogging in the city. Modi said: “I have seen time and again that there have been waterlogging problems because of road and trench cutting during the monsoon. But it should not happen again and the officials concerned have been directed to follow the instruction.”

He said: “Of the 122 pump houses, 113 are in working condition and the rest will be repaired within next 10 days with the help of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Bihar Rajya Jal Parshad.”

He said: “To make the pump house function better, an engineer will be placed for 24 hours with a cellphone. Patrolling party will keep an eye on the functioning of the pump house and if there is any problem, it will be repaired within 12 hours.”

He added: “For pump houses that function on diesel, 200 litre of diesel will be kept as backup if there is any electricity problem.”

Modi said: “About 70 per cent of work has been completed on the drainage system and in the next 15 days rest of the work will be completed.”

The deputy chief minister said: “There are a few major gutters in the city and the cleaning work of these gutters will be completed soon. Out of 7,900ft, only 1,165ft is left to be completed.”

He said: “The residents of waterlogging-prone localities like Kankerbagh and Rajendra Nagar will face fewer problems this monsoon. High-power diesel pumps are available to pump out water in case any locality faces waterlogging problem.”

He said: “Around 62 per cent of work has been completed in all the 15 big drains in Patna.”

Talking about the problem of open manholes he said: “I have ordered to close all the open manholes immediately and not a single manhole will be left open after June 30.”

He said: “I have asked PMC to create a separate department that will look after the manhole problem.”

Modi instructed officials of the National Building Construction Corporation Limited (NBCCL) to complete all pending schemes before the monsoon hits the city.

He directed the PMC commissioner to regularly visit the colonies to check the problem of waterlogging, sanitation and cleaning to review the progress made in the work with officials of NBCCL.

He said the Bihar Rajya Jal Parshad has been directed to install 38 new pumps to increase their capacity. As many as 30 new pumps would be installed before next monsoon and eight would be installed soon after that. He said 75 new borings will be installed to tackle the problem of drinking water.”

Apart from senior government officials, the meeting was also attended by road construction minster, Nand Kishore Yadav, urban development and housing minister Prem Kumar, Kumrarh Assembly seat MLA Arun Kumar Sinha who looks after the area of Kankerbagh and Rajendra Nagar, Bankipore MLA Nitin Navin and Digha MLA Poonam Devi.

For the next three months, Modi has asked the urban development and housing minister to hold a review meeting on measures against waterlogging and drinking problem every Wednesday.