Thiruvananthapuram: The cleaning of drains and canals have come to a standstill as civic body officials are busy with the elections.
With occasional summer showers in the city, low lying areas like S. S. Kovil Road at Thampanoor and the neighbouring regions of Pazhavangadi Ganapathy temple became waterlogged leaving traders and pedestrians in distress.
The city has not been experiencing heavy summer showers compared to other districts, especially in central Travancore. When it rained for close to an hour last week, the low lying areas were more or less submerged.
Rahul, an employee of Ramesh Electricals at S. S. Kovil Road, told DC that had it rained for more than an hour, then the street notorious for submerging would have come to a standstill.
“Fortunately, it rained only for close to an hour in the recent summer shower. It was not heavy summer showers, and still, the S. S. Kovil road traffic was affected. Majority of the traders and businesses are going to be badly affected once the summer showers lash daily. The civic body officials should take steps to prevent waterlogging”, he said.
He heaves a sigh of relief that fortunately, the water went into the adjoining drains within an hour.
Deputy mayor Rakhi Ravikumar told DC that they had already initiated cleaning of drains including Amayizhanchan Canal. But with the election campaigning reaching its crescendo, the drive has come to a standstill.
“The civic authorities had already kick-started the cleaning drive. Currently, the work on building a huge drain at the S. S. Kovil road is on, and we are hoping to complete it before the monsoon sets in. Once the elections are over, the drive will resume,” she said.
The main culprit behind the canals getting clogged is a section of citizens hurling garbage. Though the district administration launched Operation King Cobra to book those dumping waste in public places, there is no respite.
The district collector had invoked section 133 of CrPC to prevent dumping of garbage in public places. There have been efforts to catch the culprits by intensifying their surveillance mechanism.
