Water-logging in Patna: Govt. Still in Strategizing Phase

Patna: July 21, 2008

After enduring three monsoon season since wrestling power from the RJD, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday still appeared to be guided by his bureaucratic style of functioning when he said he would soon constitute a special task force to study ways to combat water-logging problem in Patna.

During his weekly Janata Durbar, Kumar said that this task force would be made up of expert engineers, specialists in drainage system, geologists, and other professionals who would, following detailed study and survey of the area, suggest short and long-term ways to keep Patna free from water-logging.

With the talk of a detailed study barely in its infancy, chances of any permanent relief could still be years, perhaps even a decade, away, said a senior Water Resources official on Monday while accusing the former Urban Development Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey of squandering away the first two years in power that could have been used to resolve the problem once and for all.

Meanwhile, situation in Rajendra Nagar, Kankarbagh, and other water-logged areas remained grim as water-level in those regions remained static despite use of worn-out sump machines and inadequate fire tenders, and a slew of diktats all the way from the Chief Minister to the city Mayor.

Patna District Magistrate Jitendra Kumar Sinha and Mayor Sanjay Kumar once again surveyed affected areas and issued orders like spraying more bleaching powder to prevent mosquitoes from breeding and to ensure doctors were available at all hours.

The administration's failure to get a grip on water-logging problem in Patna has given plenty of ammunition to the opposition leaders as well.

On Monday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) activists pretended to 'plant' rice crop in front of Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi's partially submerged house in Rajendra Nagar in an attempt to lampoon his failure to free Patna from water-logging.