MAPUSA
With just about a month left for the onset of monsoon, the Mapusa civic administration has shifted gears to complete pre-monsoon work to clean stormwater drains in all 20 wards and the municipal market even as the water resources department (WRD) is yet to take up work on de-silting of major nullahs in town.
The civic body has completed the tendering process to appoint agencies for cleaning work and the contractors have begun work two days ago. The plan is to complete the work before the onset of monsoon by May-end.
Normally, the onset of monsoon is in the first week of June but the State receives pre-monsoon showers by the end of May.
Every year, to minimise water-logging, the civic body removes silt from all the major and minor drains to allow free flow of water during a heavy downpour.
According to Chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council Priya Mishal, first round of clearing of drains was completed last month and the second round has been taken up from May 2 onwards.
“De-silting work has been tendered and work has started in earnest. De-silting of market drains is going on during the nights not to inconvenience people visiting the market during the day,” Mishal said.
She, however, admitted that work to clean the major nullahs was yet to be taken up.
“WRD has assured us to take up the work. Local MLA Joshua D’Souza has also promised us to ensure that all the relevant departments will carry out all pre-monsoon activity in Mapusa,’ she said.
But several councillors were not convinced over the pre-monsoon works being undertaken by the civic body.
“They have started the actual work just two days ago. The so called first round of pre-monsoon work was just a rehearsal and not much was achieved in that round. Hopefully, all works will be completed before the arrival of the monsoon,” Bhivshet said.
According to Shashank Narvekar, a councillor of the opposition group, only three days were allotted for each ward in the first round which was far from sufficient.
“Now, they claim to have given a tender to three contractors but no schedule has been shared with us,” Narvekar said.
