M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 31: A silt and slush-free drain in the Medininagar Municipal Corporation before the onset of monsoon looks like a big challenge.
There are 140 drains in the municipal corporation area while the people responsible to keep it clean are only around 35. The drains are of varied length and width, some pucca while some kachha.
City manager at the Medinirai Municipal Corporation Pradeep Kumar said, “We are trying to clean our drains, as many as possible, before the arrival of Monsoon here.”
Notably, Palamu is a rain shadow district and gets south-west monsoon. It has been found that the monsoon arrives here 8 to 10 days after it breaks in Kerala.
Media reports suggest the arrival of monsoon in Kerala and going by the past trend, rains may begin to lash Palamu on and from June 7 or 8.
Sources said it is a kind of race against monsoon to de silts the drains in the municipal corporation.
There are two sets of workers in the municipal corporation. One is Jharu Wala (Workers with brooms who clean streets) and the other is Nali Wala (workers who clean drains). They do not interfere with each other work.
The daily wages of a drain cleaner is Rs 337 but despite this, workers do not come forward for the job as they feel it is against their caste or social respect in their locality.
The city manager admitted that they run short of workers who can clean the drains.
The slush and silt that are taken out of the drains are kept over ground and too close to the same drains from where it has been retrieved. Sources said if the dump is not lifted for disposal then it again slips into the same drain.
Sources said drains of at least half a dozen wards out of the 35 wards in the municipal corporation area open into the river Koel as there is no sewerage plant in the Palamu district.
River Koel gets polluted by ‘official drains’
Sources said some enterprising people have the outlets of their private drains right into the bed of the river Koel.
There is a central government-sponsored school at the Nawa Toli in Medininagar whose drains open into the river Koel. Sources said drains stifle here because of plastic waste, polythene, wrappers, tailor masters’ fabric clippings and others.
