Dumped garbage chokes flow of sewage on natural drainage channel No. 6 at Chintamaniswar in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 18: When monsoon arrives, respite from scorching summer days is not on the minds of Chintamaniswar residents. The fear of a flood-like situation grips them.

The delay in renovating the natural drainage channel No. 6 that runs through Chintamaniswar is the reason for the annual plight of the local residents.

Not ready to bear the sewage onslaught any longer, the residents hit the streets to highlight their plight here today.

Every year, sewage and floodwaters inundates the lanes of Chintamaniswar, especially Jali Gali, because of the choked drainage channel.

A former official of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chitta Ranjan Mohapatra, who is also a resident of Chintamaniswar, said: “For the last six years, I have been approaching almost every one in the state administration to help the residents, but nothing has happened till date.”

“Officials of the Odisha Construction Corporation, the agency which is entrusted with responsibility of renovating the drain, always promise that the work would start within a day or two, but nothing has happened in the last six years.”

The area falls in ward No. 49 of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.

Local councillor Amaresh Jena said: “The tender for the renovation work has been awarded to the Odisha Construction Corporation. But we do not know why the agency is not executing the work.”

Rainwater comes at such force in the drainage channel that in 2009 a youth was swept away by the waters in 2009.

Parked two-wheelers and cars drifting away in the drainage channel’s waters have become a common scene here in every rainy season. The channel did maximum damage to the area during the super cyclone of 1999.

The drainage channel, which covers 3.11km after starting from Unit-II, passes through Ashok Nagar, Railway Lines, Buddha Nagar, Cuttack Road, Chintamaniswar and Badagada.

The channel lies so choked with dumped garbage that often the municipal corporation has to step in to clean its basin from polythene and other solid waste.

Chief engineer (drainage division) R.C. Panda told The Telegraph: “We have been in touch with the officials of the Odisha Construction Corporation. They have assured us to start the renovation within a week.”

The local councillor also expressed disappointment that the municipal corporation did not act against those who dumped garbage in the crucial drainage channel.