Minister focuses on flooding along VIP Road stretch

Kolkata: State municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul on Monday inspected the waterlogging black spots identified along the stretch from Kaikhali’s Haldiram crossing off VIP Road. She instructed all agencies concerned to conduct canal, manhole and culvert cleaning on a war footing before monsoon arrives, with a focus on Haldiram, where heavy waterlogging occurs every year during monsoon.

The minister held a meeting with officials of irrigation and other departments to take stock of monsoon preparedness. She then visited the waterlogging black spots accompanied by govt officials. “We are trying to ensure waterlogging at Haldiram could at least be minimised this time,” Paul said.

Paul said that, from now on, no conservation cleaning worker will be engaged to go down inside manholes for cleaning. The minister said manual scavenging inside manholes was banned, and instructed officials to use suction machines to clean plastic and other waste that have been choking the drainage lines.

“The drainage lines need to be cleaned as much as possible before monsoon. There are several manholes on the stretch from Mandalgathi to Cantonment. The manholes were covered with pavement blocks. Now, they need to be dug up, expanded and cleaned. Irrigation department will clean up the canal stretch and the culverts,” Paul said.

“We urge citizens to segregate waste in households. We will continue requesting for a couple of weeks, after which, the Nirmal Sathi workers will not collect unsegregated waste from houses,” the minister said.

Waterlogging at Haldiram crossing and up to Chinar Park has been a recurrent problem every monsoon after heavy rain.