Feb. 23: If the Dibrugarh Municipal Board is to be believed, waterlogging in this Upper Assam town will be a thing of the past within the next couple of years.
The board is expecting Rs 29 crore from the Centre for construction of a new network of drains to solve the problem of artificial floods.
The proposal has been jointly prepared by the board and the town and country planning development department. It ostensibly has the blessings of state planning and development minister Prithibi Majhi.
Majhi, who represents Lahowal constituency, is the lone minister from Dibrugarh in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress-Bodo People’s Progressive Front government.
“We have great expectations from the minister. He had assured us that he would personally take up the issue with the state chief minister and the DoNER ministry after the National Games,” said Biraj Das, the new chairman of the board.
There is a drainage channel to drain out rain water during summer, but it has become almost defunct over the years. Worse still, dumping of excessive garbage has clogged the drains.
The condition of the 22-km-long main drain is the worst. Efforts by the civic authorities and other agencies like the embankment and drainage department to clean it have come to nought.
“Waterlogging has been a problem for several years now. Our hands are tied up due to inadequate resources. Therefore, we have been trying to get this mega proposal cleared for a permanent solution to this problem,” Das said.
As an interim measure, the municipal board has decided to clean all small and medium-sized drains in the town. However, infrastructure to execute the plan is still inadequate.
“We are short of vehicles. The district administration and Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukon have assured us of more vehicles to carry out the cleaning exercise. We appeal to the people to co-operate with us in making the town beautiful and clean,” said Bitul Talukdar, the vice-chairman of the board.
The government is reportedly thinking of increasing the jurisdiction of the board and create five more wards. There are 22 wards at present.
