Sunday saw Nagpurians pour in at Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) headquarters, with a flood of complaints during the ‘Janata Durbar’ called by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways. An overwhelming number of complaints were about water-logging after recent rains, faulty drainage system, chokage of storm water drains in various parts of the city. Most people blamed the concrete roads and choked drainage system for water-loggging in their respective areas. People made their submissions to Gadkari in the meeting hall, and surrounded Gadkari later on too when he was on his way out after the ‘Janata Durbar’.

 

As per the press release issued by Gadkari’s office later in the evening, more than 1,500 complaints were received. These related to inconvenience caused due to ongoing infrastructure development, rainwater gushing into people’s homes, water-logging on the streets, potholes on roads etc. Taking cognisance of such a huge number of complaints, the Union Minister directed Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari, Municipal Commissioner to conduct a zone-wise inspection through Public Health Engineering Department of NMC and submit a report.

 

Since most of the complaints were about water-logging and choked drainage lines, the Union Minister pointed his questions towards Public Health Engineering Department of NMC and sought explanations. He also warned the officials concerned of strict action in case of similar complaints in future. He directed Shweta Banerjee, Superintending Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department, to personally visit the sites of choked drainage lines, study the reasons, and find solutions so that similar situations do not arise in future. However, Gadkari refused to blame concrete roads for waterlogging in various parts of the city. According to him, “Concrete roads are not responsible for waterlogging in Nagpur. The choked drainage channels adjacent to concrete roads caused the trouble.” He cited example of Ambazari floods last year and said that the event was attributed to concrete roads but did not occur this year due to prompt and planned actions by NMC authorities.

 

The ‘Janata Durbar’ ran for around three hours. Gadkari assured the people that he would hand over all the complaints received in the ‘Janata Durbar’ zone-wise to NMC and ask for a review and solution as soon as possible. He also assured the citizens to call a review meeting with the Municipal Commissioner and his technical team about status of complaint redressal and help in resolving their difficulties too. Citizens were allowed in the meeting hall as per tokens issued beforehand at registration counters outside to avoid crowding. Though more than 1,500 complaints were received, only around 200 complainants got a chance to present their case in front of Gadkari. Many citizens were still standing in queue for registration even after the Union Minister had left the venue, in hope that their problems would be resolved. Krishna Khopde, Vikas Kumbhare, Mohan Mate, MLAs; Pravin Datke, MLC; Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari, Municipal Commissioner and Adminstrator of NMC; Aanchal Goyal and Ajay Charthankar, Additional Municipal Commissioners, also were present at the ‘Janata Durbar’. The officers of all zones in city also were in attendance. 

 

 

“By taking advantage of dry spell of rain, a study will be conducted to find out reasons of water-logging at all the spots mentioned in the complaints received today and immediate corrective actions will be taken including cleaning of drainage channels,” said Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, while interacting with mediapersons soon after the ‘Janata Durbar’ on Sunday. Speaking about the steps being taken to solve water-logging problems in city, Gadkari said that choke-points in drainage system would be identified and proposals for dechoking would be moved as early as possible. From the next year, all drainage lines will be cleaned three to four months ahead of monsoon to avoid water-logging, he added. Central Government has allocated Rs 2,400 crore in this year’s Union Budget for Nag river pollution abatement project to be undertaken in association with Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), Gadkari told reporters.

 

He said that this project would help improve drainage system in four Legislative Assembly constituencies in the city and reduce Nag river pollution. Also, an amount of Rs 180 crore has been earmarked for rehabilitation of those affected by Nag river rejuvenation plan, he mentioned. As far as unauthorised layouts in the city are concerned, the Union Minister said that some innovative low-cost road solutions could be found and implemented to provide relief to the people residing there. If Nagpur Improvement Trust provides for road, water, and drainage in the unauthorised layouts under its jurisdiction, NMC should be able to absorb them in its authority, he added. According to Gadkari, there is ‘almost no water shortage’ in Nagpur as several related infrastructure works have been completed. He said that old water and drainage pipelines were being changed under AMRUT scheme.