Miffed over complaints of waterlogging in some pockets of the city, the mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Firhad Hakim, came down heavily on the officials of the drainage department today.
At least two callers during the ‘Talk to Mayor’ session complained about waterlogging woes in their wards today.
One of the callers, a doctor from Ward 63 complained about waterlogging issues near his house.
He also rued that earlier bleaching powder used to be sprinkled regularly but now such steps to control the breeding of mosquitoes are not being carried out.
Another caller from Ward 125 also talked about similar problems.
Visibly disappointed on getting the complaints, the mayor said, “Won’t the KEIIP engineers see that there is no waterlogging? What are the AC’s doing? Why aren’t they seeing where there is waterlogging? Coming down heavily on his officials, the mayor said that they were being given false information.
“This is a bad system of passing the ball in other’s court. I was told there is no more waterlogging anywhere in Kidderpore. But when I went to attend the funeral of my brother in Kidderpore, there was waterlogging in his house. I myself went there in kneedeep water. There were reports of no more waterlogging but I had to stand there in the water,” said the mayor.
One of the officials said that the problem might be due to high tides to which the mayor said that there was no relation between the two.
Pointing out the poor condition of roads at Diamond Harbour Road in Kidderpore stretch, the mayor said, “The line in that area is not connected to that of the pumping station at Nawab Ali Park. They have connected half the line and left the remaining work.”