Thane: UMC's Claim Of 90% Drains Cleaned Is A Washout

Thane: Claims made by Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) Additional Commissioner Jamir Lengarekar of cleaning the drains proved to be false when after the first rain itself on Saturday, waterlogging was reported at several places in the area. Earlier, Lengarekar claimed that the civic body had cleaned small and big drains before the monsoon and 90 per cent of the drains had been cleaned before June 15.

His claims were washed away as after half an hour of rain the furniture market, ITI college, GOL Maidan area were inundated with rain water causing difficulties for the citizens.

Tree falls on house, rickshaw

Shashikant Dayama, a social activist from Ulhasnagar said, "At Birla Gate, an old tree fell on a house and a rickshaw damaging causing traffic hold-up for more than one hour. The fire department rushed to the spot and removed the tree from the side of the road and made way for the traffic," Dayama said and added that drains were found overflowing with waste plastic bags even after they were claimed to be cleaned. The UMC chief is not taking any action against the plastic bag factories, he alleged

Citizens carelessly dump garbage into drain

Citizens also carelessly dump garbage into the drain. The residents of GOL Maidan, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and some other parts of the city complained about water logging and garbage on the roadside. Earlier, ahead of the monsoon several people and opposition leaders had targeted UMC for not cleaning the drainage line properly. Neetu Vishwakarma, a social activist from Ulhasnagar said, "If just half an hour of normal rain creates such problems, then what will happen when it will rain heavily."

Dayama added, "On Monday few social activists and also politicians will meet UMC commissioner Aziz Shaikh and will demand him to blacklist contractors and also ask to stop payment to those who did not clean the drainage line properly. "

Lengarekar said, "We have cleaned 90 per cent of the drainage line before the monsoon. However, if drainages at some places are not cleaned, then we will instruct the contractor and will ask them to properly clean it on a priority basis."