PATNA: As heavy rains continue to flood streets and homes here during the ongoing monsoon, the Patna High Court came down heavily on civic authorities for the failure in checking waterlogging and waste management, saying that the city had been reduced to an “urban slum”.
“The whole city at best can be described as an urban slum and surely the citizens deserve better,” the court observed while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by rights organization People’s Watch. It had sought the court’s direction to enforce the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, in Patna, court officials said yesterday.
The court Monday directed the city municipal commissioner to take all necessary steps to enforce the law by Dec. 31 and file a report in the first week of 2009. It noted that the law came into existence about eight years ago and yet somebody had to approach the court to ensure its enforcement even though Patna faced hell every monsoon.
Meanwhile, at least 22 people were killed in rain related incidents in seven districts of Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours, officials said in Lucknow yesterday. House collapses due to heavy rains caused most of the deaths.
With the details of the damage caused by the rainfall still being collected, officials said the casualties were reported from Barabanki, Sultanpur, Lakhmipur, Bahraich, Banda, Chitrakoot and Auraiya districts. The maximum number of deaths was reported from Barabanki, where six people died in separate incidents of wall and ceiling collapse.
“The casualties have been reported from Shahabpur and Kursi villages of the district,” Barabanki district magistrate Ravindra Nair told IANS. In Sultanpur district, five people including three women died in separate incidents of house collapse that occurred in Musafirkhana and Amethi towns, official said. “We are providing all necessary help to those displaced following the rains,” Sultanpur District Magistrate Vishal Rai told IANS.
Officials at the Department of National Disaster Management said more than 1,400 people had died in the affected states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
In another development, officials and endangered families in Nepal’s border villages are blaming India after heavy rains damaged a barrage and triggered floods that have destroyed thousands of homes and are feared to have killed at least five people.
Downpours Sunday night made the Saptakoshi River on the Indo-Nepal border swell ominously and lash the barrage over it, causing two supporting spurs to crumble. The escaping floodwater began creating havoc in Sunsari district in Nepal as well as parts of Bihar state in India across the border.
Over 30,000 people became homeless overnight in Nepal due to the floods, taking refuge on the highway and in schools and government offices. Police officer K. Rai, who was overseeing the rescue operations, said five people, missing since Monday, were feared to have been swept away by the swirling waters.
