Agartala: Manik Dey, Former Tripura Urban Development Minister and senior CITU leader, on Saturday advised Agartala Municipal Corporation Mayor Deepak Majumder and state’s Urban Development Department to work sincerely to mitigate the problems pertaining to water-logging in Agartala city.
Dey also suggested the state government to focus on some real work instead of holding photo sessions in inundated streets of the city.
Dey was referring to Chief Minister Manik Saha and Mayor Dipak Majumder’s visit to the flood-affected areas of Agartala city as heavy pre-monsoon rains caused severe water-logging in several parts of the city.
The former minister said, “The new mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation in a statement said that the reason behind the flood is overflowing of river Howrah that runs through Agartala city. It shows how unaware he is of the geographical aspects of the city. Had river Howrah been overflowing, the situation would have turned grim. Naturally, overflowing water of river Howrah enters Agartala through Chandrapur and if so happens, the whole city would have been submerged.”
Dey said, “We feel the drains of the city were not clean enough, which prevented the flow of water and resulted in water-logging. When the Left Front was in power, several projects were sanctioned by the Central government for improvement of drainage system of the city.”
“There are three basic outlines—Kalapania Khal, Akhaura Khal and Katakhal that pump out the excess water from the city. While our government was in power, we tried our best to improvise these canals. I strongly feel there might have been some obstructions in these lines that contributed to flash floods.”
He also spoke about a range of projects under ‘Agartala Smart City Mission’ sanctioned during the Left Front government, but did not see the light of the day even after 50 months.
Dey also slammed the BJP-led government for shrinking allocation of funds for the Tripura Urban Development Project.
“This scheme has not only given money to the poor but also helped the government and the AMC in ensuring a clean city. Several kaccha roads were turned into brick-soling roads with the help of the TUEP project. The Left government’s final allocation for the project was Rs 90 crore that used to be translated into 75 days of work per year, while the allocation now has reduced to Rs 40 to 45 crore and average workdays are now limited to 20 to 30 days,” he added.
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