Floods in city: Administrative glare on 'Banamalipur'

As the season of rain is all set to trigger heavy spells of rain like every year, clouds of uncertainty has already started hovering around the minds of people living in Banamalipur— the Chief Minister’s own constituency and also a predominant locality of Agartala city, known for being the worst victim of seasonal floods.

The area located in the eastern side of the city, considered to be the worst hit by frequent floods every year. Since last few years, the people of Banamalipur repeatedly faced the seasonal tragedy of flood and now, when the rainy season is knocking at the doorstep, they are once again anticipating the same.

Speaking to the Tripuraindia.com, one of the local of Banamalipur said, it has become a common practice now. Every year we get assured of necessary steps from the administration but once the rainy season gets over, we find no one working to resolve the issue.

Last year, he added, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had himself inspected the area and assured of all necessary steps to prevent the yearly calamity. However, we have also observed some steps being taken such as, cleaning the drainages, repeated visits of higher officials and immense monitoring from the part of Agartala Municipal Corporation. But much to the dismay of the locals, only recently the locals witnessed over flow of water subsequent to few hours of incessant downpour which once again put a question mark on the preemptive measures.

One other hand, the administration is found to be working day and night on the streets in order to overcome the seasonal strike of water in the city. Agartala Municipal Commissioner Dr. Sialesh Kumar Yadav only recently paid repeated visit to Banamalipur along with other officials of the civic body. Speaking to the media persons in the sidelines of his visits, he said, we are trying to trace the sources where from the water flows. Then we will try to prevent water from flowing inward the city by giving it a diversion. Moreover, he said, cleaning of drainages also in progress to wipe out the water from the city.

Mayor Prafullajit Sinha, in this regard, said, Municipal Commissioner had already attended several meetings with the urban development officials. He had discussed the issues related to massive water congestion in city along with ways to prevent the extra burden on administration that seasonal rain presses every year. Moreover, a new pump was also installed at Orient Chowmuhani where the water logging creates the biggest mess. If everything falls in place, we anticipate nothing serious will occur unlike every year, he hoped.      

However, experts says, the reason behind this seasonal dilemma is nothing but unscientific way of city planning. Many ponds and small scale lakes were filled up to erect residential complexes and most importantly, the increase in population in last few years is also considered to be a contributing factor behind the floods.