Season’s First Rain Puts Patiala In Problem

Inundated roads and blocked drainages are continuously haunting the city year by year and the first pre monsoon rain on Thursday’s morning made the people witness some uncanny incidences of the royal city.

Heavy rains that are continuing for hours together are not only exposing the poor preparation of the Municipal Corporation of the city but they are even bringing the inability of the municipal corporation in dealing with the problems of water logging in the city.

The streets which are seen with water logging have totally paralyzed the routines life of people who are experiencing huge inconvenience. The markets, especially the ones which are located inside the city are mostly empty as the shopkeepers as well as traders kept their shops closed owing to the water logging.

Even VIP lanes are facing the same problem. The road which runs in front of the residence of the Deputy Commissioner GK Singh at the Leela Bhawan was seen all flooded and jammed with traffic. The boundary of the house of the DC collapsed because of the heavy rains in the Patiala city.

A survey recently conducted in the city exposed that the problems due to rains were more threatening in the low lying parts of the city where the houses of the people were full of water.

The administration shamelessly pointed fingers at each other rather than solving the water problem.

The Mayor of the city, Amrindar Bajaj blamed the former Chief Minister Capt. Amrandar Singh for the situation.

“The water logging problem is occurring because of the covering of the Storm water channels during the tenure of Capt Amrindar Singh. As the nullah was fully covered, it choked and now it has become difficult to clear it on a daily basis.” Bajaj added.

Bajaj expressed his inability for doing the needful for the people. He said” This problem is so complex that it cannot be fixed in a day’s time. Concrete solution is required which will be figured out in sometime. We have although drained out the water in wee hours.”

Pertinently, it’s been more than 6 years since Capt. Amrindar’s regime got over, still today the municipal corporation has not been able to come up with a concrete plan for the problem.

As the water inundated the houses, the life came to a complete halt, causing damage to the property.

Kamaljit Kaur, a local resident of Model town, said that the irony of situation is that staffs of sanitation department who are sweeping the roads and streets are shoving the muck in the drain itself which is choking the drains during rains.

“If first showers and that too just the pre monsoon rain have paralyzed the life of the city, what will happen when the monsoon will occur? The management should think of a temporary solution for this problem so that they can give some relief to the residents in the rainy season”, she said.

Balvinder Kaur, a local resident of the Book market said” Since water has collected up to the knees. It is very difficult to go out of the house. Customers are not able to reach the shops as the whole street along with the markets is flooded.”