Bhubaneswar, June 1: A brief spell of rain has turned a stretch in Rasulgarh into a slippery zone because of the municipal corporation's sloppy work.

If the overflowing drains were not enough, unattended sludge scooped out during the de-silt drive has left the roads murky and slippery. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had left the de-silt work incomplete and compounded the problem for the residents.

"The civic body officials had recently dredged the sludge from the drains. Unattended muck on the road has created an unhygienic condition," said Tutu Baliarshing, a Rasulgarh resident.

The situation has taken a bad turn with the heavy rain that lashed the city today for nearly two hours.

Residents alleged that the rain had washed the sludge back into the drains and also into their houses.

"It is a myopic effort of the civic body. What they have done has neither benefited us nor them," said Bandana Sahoo, a homemaker.

Similar problems are haunting the residents of Niladri Vihar. Work to widen roads and construct drains are under way for a long time and this has led to major waterlogging mainly after today's downpour.

"It was already a difficult task for us to move on the road due to the ongoing construction work and the rain has added to our problems," said Lulu Behera, a corporate employee.

The civic body officials in their monthly council meeting last week had given special emphasis on de-silting of drains to avoid choking and waterlogging in view of the coming monsoon. They had also decided to place adequate number of dustbins to avoid irregular dumping of garbage in the monsoon, but the reality speaks a different story.

Contacted, a top official of the municipal corporation has assured that the irregular cleaning will be resolved shortly.

"We will ensure that the sludge is lifted right after it is scooped out of the drains," said the official.

Sources said that the water resource department was taking care of the de-silting and construction of the 12 major drainage channels in the city. The small ones, however, are taken care of by the municipal corporation.

The civic body has decided to take the drainage related work from the water resource department under its own fold last year. It had then decided to set up a separate drainage division, which will look after all the drain related works.

However, it is yet to take shape. Corporation officials said that the drainage division could not start functioning due to a delay in the recruitment of the staff members.

"We are in process of recruiting people who will run the division. It needs an executive engineer and other staff members. Once the division starts functioning, it will take care of all drainage-related issues," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.