A ROAD MARRED WITH POTHOLES DUE TO INCOMPLETE DRAIN LAYING WORK AT KOEL NAGAR IN ROURKELA. PICTURE BY UTTAM KUMAR PAL

Rourkela, June 20: The Rourkela Municipality is making last-minute efforts to clean the drains here before the monsoon hits the state.

Residents complained that not only the drains are unclean, but also the sewerage line laying works had been delayed. This will compound the problems during the rainy season.

Officials in the municipality said that de-siltation work of primary or main drains as well as tertiary or sub-drains had been going on in many areas.

“We have hired around 150 labourers and have been carrying out sanitation work. We will cover the entire city in a few days,” said executive officer of the municipality D.P. Mohapatra. He also said that the municipality had formed an emergency team equipped with tractors to carry out cleaning operation.

The team is moving around in the city in the afternoon.

“Besides, an eviction team has been constituted to keep an eye on debris being dumped into the drain that will choke the water path,” said Mohapatra adding that the municipality is ready to meet any kind of emergency arising out of silts in the drains.

“The sewerage line work has not yet finished in our area and no vehicle can ply here, how do they claim having cleaned them?” said Gautam Singh, a resident of Udit Nagar.

R.N. Mishra, former vice-chairman of the municipality, said that in his area the laying of sewerage line was posing a serious threat. “First, the work got delayed and now though it’s finished, the roadwork is not yet complete. We face a lot of problems in using the roads. In the rainy days it will be worse,” said Mishra.

“We have written to the sewerage board to speed up the work and they have assured to do it,” said the executive officer.