BJP terms bandh a big success

Raipur, July 05, 2010

 

Claiming its ‘Bharat bandh’ call a big success, the BJP said it could happen because of the people’s support who, too, were severely infuriated with the recent fuel price hike and rising prices of the essential commodities in the country. While talking to the media persons, the BJP’s national secretary Thawar Chand Gehlot said the Congress-led UPA government failed to curb inflation due to its flawed economic policies, no control over prices and sheer intention to show country’s exaggerated growth rate to the world.
Gehlot claimed that the bandh evoked cent percent response in the country. In Chhattisgarh, he said, the bandh was successful and informed that the party got tremendous response from the people. He further informed that a number of BJP leaders were detained in Congress-ruled states during the bandh call.
He said the Congress never attempted to bring down the rising prices of the daily use items and hence drew flak from all corners. “The hand of Congress is no more with the people, but it has now entered into their pockets and only support the traitors,” Gehlot charged.
He clarified that the Opposition would not allow the UPA government to relax and would mount pressure on it to rollback. Either the UPA government will have to cut down the prices of the commodities or will have to step down, Gehlot said. He said bandh was the last weapon of democracy which the BJP used to stir up the UPA government.
Gehlot said when the BJP questioned from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding skyrocketing prices of essential commodities in spite of his own expertise in economics and presence of experienced economists like Montek Singh Ahluwalia and P Chidambaram in his government, Singh stated the Centre was capable to bring down inflation but was helpless as it wanted to increase the annual growth rate.
Gehlot said inflation in the country had gone past 15 percent while the price rise in the food grains had shot up to 17-18 percent. He asked why the Congress was playing with the sentiments of Indians. He pointed out that the inflation never crossed 2-2.5 percent during the entire tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee while the annual growth rate remained to healthy 10.2 percent. Even the growth rate of the neighbouring hovers around 7-8 percent and the inflation remains low nearly about two percent, he said.
Gehlot further criticised the UPA government for increasing the fuel prices terming it an anti-people decision and said its negative repercussions would soon become obvious with increased prices of many more items due to increase in transportation and other fares.


Rains expose chink in RMC armour

In tackling flood-like situation in low lying areas
 

216 areas still remain flood-prone

Raipur, July 05, 2010

Although rains which are occurring intermittently with gusty winds for the past couple of days have brought much needed relief to Raipurians, they have led to flooding in several parts of the city, especially the low lying areas, making life miserable for those living in such flood-prone areas. Water-logging in these areas have made it difficult for them to move from one place to another.
There are about 216 areas in Raipur which still remain prone to flooding at times of heavy rainfalls even as the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) has drawn up a list of flood-prone areas to take appropriate measures.
Among these areas, fifty locations have been marked as low lying areas and 166 spots have been marked near small and big nullahs that get inundated when nullahs overflow.
The monsoon season is finally here and that it is going to be a testing time for the flood-control machinery in the capital. While the civic authorities have promised of making elaborate arrangements to tackle any eventuality arising out of flood during monsoon rains, waterlogging in certain colonies in urban areas and the low lying areas reveal the flip side of the municipal’s preparations.
The RMC claims that it has done adequate arrangements for flood-prone areas including constitution of disaster management cell headquartered at Fire station and central as well as zonal flood-relief teams. 
The residents of low lying areas are worried over the sufferings they may have to undergo during the coming days, taking cue from the problems encountered by them in the previous rainy season.
Wherever the road concreting has been undertaken, drains have not been dug as yet. In other places, storm drains have clogged. Pedestrians, particularly hapless school children wearing uniforms, were seen being sprinkled with muddy water as the vehicles moved past them. The sharp, deep edges of the half-completed concrete roads invite accidents.
The civic officials explained – “Wherever the drains have been cleared, it is seen that they get filled with filth and dirt within a couple of days because of the rain water.”
Similarly, slippery roads, uncovered drains, damaged slabs on the drains, collapsed storm drains and gushing rain water pose dangers to lives and property, as road users fail to notice them because of standing water.
Several streets in various low-lying areas are still inundated and standing water and heaps of garbage made for a very unpleasant sight. Many people from various localities complained that the RMC staff did not turn up to drain rainwater.
They lambasted civic performance, saying chocked and broken sewerage lines were also the cause of the mess. They said the RMC and the state government paid attention only on a few selected roads in posh areas. They urged civic authorities to visit low-lying localities to see first-hand the working of the field staff.
“Officials of civic departments are busy in working to the satisfaction of ministers and high-ups and making plans on papers instead of practically doing something in low-lying areas,” said Nishant, a resident of Priyadarshini Nagar. He said authorities should formulate a permanent plan to cope with monsoon instead of making temporary arrangements every year.
The citizens, while welcoming rains, hope that standing water will not be a perennial problem during this season, and that it will not pave way for any tragedies.

RMC has made all arrangements: Mayor
Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak said that the RMC had made all arrangements to manage flood-like situations. She added that the city corporation had formed a disaster management cell to rush in case of emergencies. About the low-lying areas of the city getting inundated time and again, she said that guidelines had been drafted to ensure that houses being built in low-lying areas in future get equipped with proper underground drainage and other infrastructure to manage such situations. “Besides, the RMC is also constructing houses for poor under Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme through Centrally-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and in coming years, we will make the city slum-free where the water-logging problems occur frequently,” she said.

We are ready to tackle every situation: Chopra
RMC’s Health Officer Dr Amrit Chopra says that the municipal was ready to deal every situation during flooding in low lying areas. “We will immediately commence rescue operation if any area will get submerged. We will quickly shift the affected residents to the dharamshalas or to the municipal schools,” Chopra said. He informed that four departments – RMC, Medical College Raipur, government’s Health Department and Women and Child Development Department were working jointly to deal the problems arising due to rains in the city. He said already zone-wise doctors’ team had been constituted and they were continuously keeping an eye on flood-prone areas to prevent any outbreak of water-borne diseases. Kalibadi hospital has been made the Control Room to deal the cases of contagious diseases.

Major flood-prone areas in the city
Dharam Nagar, Hanuman Nagar, Veerbhadra Nagar, Chhattisgarh Nagar, Vidya Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Kali Nagar, Chandi Nagar, Ram Nagar, Priyadarshini Nagar, Durga Nagar, Sarona, Itabhatta, Saddu, Chuna Bhatti, Murra Bhatti, etc.

Shweta Jain
This shows that all the tax paid by people go to the pockets of all the shameless corporation staffs and politicians and just to show off that they are working 24x7, they dig roads everywhere throughout the year and get the work done by cheap quality materials. Therefore, It is not surprising at all that the government and the administration usually try to follow the western countries when they want to carry out development works here, but when the implementation part comes, the corrupt officials and their poor planning result in the current menace. There is no drainage, no pedestrian pathway. One can see tank or pond on road, as rain water gushes all around. Shop keepers and roadside dwellers get free showers (of blessing) while vehicles passing on road.

Neha Sharma
We have engineers and town planners who have become experts by paying donations and passing the exams. When merit takes a beating we have these corrupt fellows calling the shot. What you can expect from these people. The future will be in these hands whereas the meritorious will leave the country for greener pastures. We have to only envy other countries. We show our love for our country only in speech like so many of our politicians but not in deed and therefore we the basic civic problems during monsoon will remain forever.

Rahul Kumar
That's what you get for not exercising your votes correctly and keeping silence and acting blind when you know that things aren't done in proper way. Wake up Raipur, come together as a community, stand united for your city's sustainable development, law and order and preserving your environment. It will take one more generation for our elected representatives to understand water & rain water management effectively.

Naresh Thakkar
It is pathetic story when it rains in Raipur. When it is compared to other cities of India, Raipur is not exceptional in terms of drainage network and corporation preparedness to combat rain menace on Raipur roads. I think, people should react sharply and must stop paying taxes to the municipal corporation. Let the NGO's take over the city administration under the watchful eyes of Lokayukta. If you really want to avoid skin diseases, please don’t walk on Raipur roads when it rains there. But boys and girls, please wear gum boots?

Rajkumar Malviya
Raipur is not a city, it is a village and in the rainy season you can smell it. If you will look everywhere, you will see builders have thrown the rubbish, no proper drainage systems, dirty water flowing in narrow streets, and polluted water being used by the poor. Is this a city? This is shoddy work and poor planning. If this is how the municipal corporation works then we can never think of competing with Shanghai & Singapore.

Mohit Chouhan
De-silting of storm water drains is an annual joke. Have these officials bothered to inspect any of the sites where the de-silting happens? All the silt and dirt is deposited by the side of the drain and with the first rains, gets into the drain again. This is an infinite loop that brings enough "revenue" to the officials.

Suresh Singh
Is there even a single person in the municipal administration who can set things in the right direction?  The administration is aware about this issue before the rainy season, but the lazy people did not do anything. If they say, they did not anticipate these issues, they are very dumb to be in the administration.

Shiv Verma
These issues prove how in-competent our so called "rulers" are. All political parties including the RMC authorities can have a city level swimming competition in Raipur city roads. I would like to congratulate the municipal corporation for changing the city into artificial ponds. And they display the actual face of the capital, isn’t it? In the name of concrete, people of this city have suffered a lot. The RMC should learn from the past mistakes and act in no time.