NMC Standing Committee chief pulls up officials over ‘shoddy’ river cleaning
| Date :30-May-2019 |
Staff Reporter;
Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), on Wednesday, drew flak from Pradeep Pohane, Chairman of Standing Committee, over ‘shoddy’ implementation of pre-monsoon river cleaning exercise. He expressed displeasure over the statistics presented by the officials concerned, and pulled them up. Just a day before, on Tuesday, a meeting was chaired by Nanda Jichkar, Mayor, to take stock of the progress of river cleaning drive. The officials concerned presented the statistics and said that the drive was being implemented effectively. On Wednesday, Pohane decided to visit various places and see for himself how effective was the drive being implemented.
Pradeep Pohane, Chairman of Standing Committee of NMC;
corporators Deepak Wadibhasme, Manisha Dhawade and others inspecting the Bharatwada Sangam area.
He was accompanied by Deepak Wadibhasme, Chairman of Lakadganj Zone; corporator Manisha Dhawade, Vaishali Rohankar, Ashish Dhawade, Devendra Vaidya, Deepak Chandekar, Dinesh Mulay, Rathe and others. According to Pohane, he found that there was difference in the picture presented by the officials and the situation on ground. He pulled up the officials for providing ‘misleading’ information to the office-bearers, and accused them of implementing the drive to merely complete the formality, without any seriousness. “If the situation continues to be so on ground, the officials concerned will have to face the music. The monsoon season is drawing closer, and the officials need to be careful to ensure that people do not suffer due to shoddy implementation of drive,” he said.
Anil Kadu, Executive Engineer; Waman Kayalkar, Zonal Officer; Devendra Bhovate, Junior Enngineer, Kamlakar Rajurkar and other officers also accompanied Pohane. The Standing Committee chief visited Hiwari Layout, Nag river stretch near St Xavier’s School, Power Station area, Bharatwada Sangam area etc. Meanwhile, Mayor also directed the officials to complete river cleaning drive by June 10. Wherever necessary, press more number of excavators in service and get the work done, she said. In several identified stretches of Nag, Pili, and Pora rivers, even half of the cleaning work has not been done. Abhijit Bangar, Municipal Commissioner, asked the officials to ensure that the silt removed from the river beds should be removed from the banks.
NMC identifies ‘chronic spots’ to clear nullah chokage Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has identified as many as 83 ‘chronic points’ across the city where waterlogging takes place in monsoon due to choking of nullahs. Also, it has started the work of clearing the chokage from these points. Dr Sunil Kamble, Health Officer of NMC, told ‘The Hitavada’ that ‘chronic points’ were the spots near cement roads, tar roads, or footpaths, where waterlogging took place during rains in past five years. “We have identified 83 such points and have submitted the list to Public Works Department,” he said. PWD uses breakers to break the portion of road or nullah to get access to nullah, and then clears the chokage. Later, PWD re-makes such portions of roads and footpaths.
The zone-wise number of chronic spots identified by NMC is as follows: Laxmi Nagar -- 14, Dharampeth -- 06, Hanuman Nagar -- 06, Dhantoli -- 06, Nehru Nagar -- 12, Gandhibagh -- 08, Satranjipura -- 06, Lakadganj -- 04, Ashi Nagar -- 10, and Mangalwari -- 11. Of these areas, works relating to dechoking of chronic points is yet to be taken up in Gandhibagh, Lakadganj and Ashi Nagar zones. Further, for the first time, NMC has started desilting the drainage system by removing cement lids, Dr Kamble said. He said that the spots where desilting was to be carried, had been identified. Deploying heavy equipment, the cement lids at specific points would be removed, then desilting will be done, and the lids would be placed back. Already, he added, such desilting was done at various spots in Mangalwari and Hanuman Nagar zones.