Jammu, September 22: No amount of media blitz or public outcry about pathetic condition of the city lanes and drains has been enough to wake up the administration in Jammu from its deep slumber even as the local politicians seem to be busy in renovating lanes and drains alongwith media teams and a pick axes and photo ops but on ground their hallow claims get exposed within a few minutes of rainfall.
The case in lower parts of Jammu city is worse and the flooded markets at Jewel Chowk, Science College, Canal Road, Dogra Chowk get submerged in two feet rainwater on a slight rainfall creating flood like situation throwing life and the traffic out of gear.
This has been going on for past several decades but nobody seems bothered by it as the leaders and administrators are busy in ‘other important’ jobs rather than resolving this issue even though the roads become death traps on every rainfall in the city.
One wonders why on earth we pay hefty amounts to our engineers in government service when they can’t resolve the water logging issues in the city even as the local people come to each others’ rescue to dewater the lanes without using any rocket science.
The situation has come to a pass where these markets have adapted to new situation and most of these shops have become submersible shops where water logging and flooding of the streets has become a norm and shopkeepers are adept to this worst situation thus exposing the claims of the so called renovations and repair works undertaken by the Jammu Municipality from time to time, only to float tender and allot works to blue eyed boys.
One of the shopkeepers at canal road when asked about the frequent flooding in the area said that their shops are like submersible motor pumps and are used to remain under water for most of the time adding we have redesigned our shops accordingly as our repeated pleas for some solution has fallen on deaf ears for past several decades.
The flooding has not only been a cause of worry for the shopkeepers and residents but also for the pedestrians and vehicle owners as the gaping manholes below the road are thrown open which remain invisible under two feet deep water thus creating death traps for the people walking or driving on the roads.
The manholes near Science college, Mahajan Sweets, Dogra Chowk and Vinayak Bazaar are the most dangerous death traps as these are the areas where most of the water coming down from the upper city gets converged making a small lake and death traps down under while the administrators look the other way to let the common man suffer.
The inaction of the administration which includes the current political dispensation has left the people in lurch and it seems as if this city has gone to dogs and there is nobody to take care of the civic issues notwithstanding the fact that corers are spent on the salary and other infrastructure of the Jammu Municipality.
The climate change has made the matters worse and every year the situation gets murkier during rainy season with increase in rainfall and if the situation is allowed to continue this way the time will not be far away when the entire lower city would become the submersible city of Jammu where every household has to adapt and redesign their houses to suit the water logging and sudden flash floods while the powers that be in Municipality and other departments make hay while the ‘Political’ Sun shines over them.