PANAJI
Nearly three months prior to the monsoon season, Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) has begun with the pre-monsoon works across the city. Unlike previous years, CCP wants to complete the pre-monsoon works by the first week of June. CCP is spending about Rs 15 lakh to carry out the pre-monsoon works.
Speaking to The Goan, CCP Mayor Surendra Furtado said, “We have started with the pre-monsoon works well in advance looking at our past experience. It is really difficult to get the required labourers as they go to their home towns for celebration of festivals and harvesting.”
In January, CCP had already taken permission from the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) to engage 35 private contract workers to carry out this work.
“We have already started with the work of cleaning the city drains, especially along the major city roads including 18th June Road, Atmaram Borkar Road and M G Road. We intend completing these areas by the end of March, after which we will begin with the cleaning of drains ward-wise,” informed Furtado.
“Once the drains in all 30 wards are cleaned, we will once again clean the drains on 18th June Road as the area is prone to flooding. So we should be in a position to complete the entire process by the first week of June,” he informed.
Furtado also informed that CCP has plans to deploy its workers at several flood-prone locations in the city during the monsoons.
“Panaji will not flood except during high tide. This year, we plan to deploy workers at all points susceptible to flooding so that as soon as it rains they can remove all the plastic, in addition to other material which flows into the drains and leads to flooding,” he said and appealed to the citizens to cooperate with CCP to keep the city clean by avoiding dumping of waste in the drains.
