Jajpur/Birajakhetra: More than one lakh people of Jajpur and Vyasanagar towns were Friday affected by rain that lashed the area for four hours.
While the met department recorded 243 mm of rainfall in the district in four hours, the claim of the district administration of spending Rs 100 crore for the beautification of the two towns irked the locals.
Such development projects are of no use for the public but are launched for the benefit of engineers, political leaders and contractors, alleged a section of affected people. Besides, rampant encroachments and drainage problems compounded the problems as the rainwater couldn’t be released from the towns, it was learnt.
Water entered the district judge court at the heart of town, while communication between DRDA office, district education office, Medical Chhak, Gandhi Chhak, Badabazar, Market Chhak, collectorate, police station and most of the wards was completely disrupted due to knee-deep water on the roads.
This apart, thousands of people living in low lying areas like Muslim Sahi, Brahmakunda, Juasarpur Chhak, Bhimkarpur, Routrapur, Naharapur, Haripur, Ganjeswar Road, Rajpur, Nayaksahi, Champamadei, Kuamadei, Jageswarpur were stranded in rainwater.
The famous Biraja Temple was also inundated by rainwater with the entire town resembling a river.
Several pending cases in the district court couldn’t be heard as the court had to be closed after rainwater entered the premises.
“It is not the flood water of Brahmani, Kharasrota or Baitarani but the water of four hours of rain that made life miserable,” said a resident who couldn’t take this ‘manmade’ problem too kindly.
Lack of foresightedness on the part of the town planning department has resulted in such a situation, locals lamented.
It is alleged that the planning department has allowed many influential people to construction their buildings on the water-release routes.
Jajpur municipality chairman Bhabaprasad Das said all the drains were de-silted ahead of the rainy season. The reason behind the water-logging would be looked into and measures taken to prevent such a situation, he added.
On the other hand, Vyasanagar municipality chairperson Sabita Rout said the works department couldn’t complete the de-siltation work between Chorda Chhak and Bypass that obstructed the release of rainwater. The condition is improving as the work is underway to cleanse the drains, Rout added.
PNN