JMC fails to clean over 200 nallahs, 1000 deep drains
Arvind Sharma
Jammu Tawi, July 23: Threat of flash floods amid ongoing monsoon season still looms large over Jammu as the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has sadly failed in its assigned task of cleaning up over two hundred (200) nallahs and around thousand (1000) plus deep drains in different areas falling within the limits of the civic body.
“The Corporation was assigned the task of cleaning up nallahs and the deep drains before the onset of monsoons but it could not be accomplished on time,” official sources in the JMC informed the Northlines while citing various reasons.
In official records of JMC, any drain having a width and depth of more than three and a half (3.5) feet falls in the category of the deep drain, while those beyond this measurement are categorised as nallahs by the Corporation.
Reliable sources informed the Northlines that apart from other factors, encroachment is the prime reason for flash floods in different areas of Jammu a few days back when monsoon first hit the Union Territory (UT).
As many nallahs and deep drains have not been cleared so there is every possibility that there may be flash floods again due to heavy rains which may cause widespread damage in terms of life and property, sources said.
“In view of the widespread damage due to flash floods some days back, we took up the issue of encroachment with both Divisional Commissioner and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) so that the encroachments are cleared along the nallahs and deep drains and people do not have to suffer again,” Chairman, Health and Sanitation Committee, JMC, Narinder Singh Jamwal said when contacted.
Some encroachments along and on the nallahs and deep drains have, although, been cleared after proactive action by both Divisional Commissioner and the Lieutenant Governor but “still there are many areas where the problem persists and it will take some time for resolution of the issue,” sources said.
The JMC has divided Jammu in three zones for maintaining health and sanitation i.e zone one, zone 2 and zone 3.
Sources informed that apart from encroachments, manpower and limited machinery are also the reasons which the JMC is confronting in its way of accomplishing the task.
“The civic body has a little over 250 workers, 8 JCBs and 2 cranes for cleaning up nallahs and the deep drains in all the 75 wards Jammu,” reliable sources informed.
Although, the issue of encroachments is there in many areas of all the three zones but Gandhi Nagar, Nanak Nagar, Janipur, Gangyal, Shastri Nagar, Talab Tillo, Satwari, Digiana are some of the areas where the encroachments are the main hindrance, sources said adding the issue of these areas has been taken up with the concerned authorities both legal and other concerned departments seeking early action.
