Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 29: The ever busy Shakti Nagar road along Ranbir Canal these days mostly remains dusty and sometimes even blocked as the authorities carrying on the construction work of a Nallah there put all the debris taken after digging land for Nallah on the road.
Not only this, residents of the area have complained that the construction of the Nallah was done without the application of mind by the concerned authorities due to which the public is facing a lot of problems.
Romi Aggarwal, a businessman based at Shakti Nagar informed that the Nallah constructed under the Smart City project has become a nuisance and is giving lot of problems to the locals of the area.
“The contractor comes in the morning and then leaves and the labour left behind doesn’t work anything. The construction work of the Nallah is useless and is only wastage of money and time and even walls of residential houses have collapsed due to it in adjoining areas,” he said adding that the debris gathered in the Nallah is left as it is and slabs are placed over it.
Aggarwal also claimed that the personnel working in Nallah construction take out PHE pipes and sells them as scrap.
Amrish Raina, a retired Chief Engineer, who lives in the affected area said there were many technical issues with the construction of Nalah which has been raised by three feet above the road level due to which level of the houses along the Nallah has been lowered triggering the problem of exit for the household waste waters from these houses.
“The raised Nallah necessitated ramp construction along it to facilitate residents of the adjoining houses to enter their houses and adjoining lanes,” he said adding that such ramps have reduced the road width by 5-6 feet which has increased risks of mishaps involving two wheelers if they hit these ramps.
Other people of the area informed that there are 30 ramps on a half km stretch of Shakti Nagar road along Ranbir Canal and the Nallah above road level leaves water-logging on this road even on a slight rainfall as there is no exit of the rain water due to faulty Nallah construction.
Jagdish Choudhary, a Pharma trader in the area said the Nallah construction was haphazard and it is narrow at some place, wide at other while somewhere it is having level raised by two feet and three feet at other.
“As the Nallah is raised by about 3 feet above entrance of many residential houses along it so when it overflows the dirty water from the Nallah enters these houses thereby inflicting damages,” he maintained.
“Gunny bags, debris etc lying in the Nallah are not cleared before placing slab over it. Somewhere the leak PHE pipes in the Nallah remain unattended and it is covered,” Chowdhary further said.
Another local of the area, Sanjeev Padha, a practising advocate informed that the problem has become worst in the last about three months and the worst hit people remained the residents of lane number 4 to 12 of Shakti Nagar.
“Many families have moved from this area as the authorities concerned have failed to resolve the problem of water entering residential houses,” he claimed adding that he too was planning to leave the place to settle somewhere with good drainage and sanitation conditions.
Locals have expressed dismay that the concerned JMC Councillor, Surinder Chowdhary paid no heed towards the problem while the former Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta, who lives at a distance of stone throw from the affected area also failed to take cognizance of the issue.
They appealed to the present Mayor, Rajinder Sharma and J&K LG to personally look into the matter.
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