By Neeraj Kumar
Patna: Bihar Urban Development and Housing Minister Nitin Naveen has directed the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Municipal Commissioner to hold zonal meetings with ward councilors to address drainage issues. The Municipal Commissioner has been instructed to remove encroachments from all major drains in the capital to prevent waterlogging.
In a review meeting held at the Secretariat on Thursday, Minister Naveen emphasized the importance of thorough cleaning of all large, small, and underground drains, with particular focus on manholes and catchpits. He insisted on the strict installation of lids and, if necessary, employing laborers to work at night to ensure the task is completed. Officials have been asked to cross-verify the cleaning work and provide weekly reports on rainfall to inform drainage preparations.
To enhance drainage infrastructure, the minister ordered the arrangement of separate transformers for all drainage pumping stations and sump houses. He also tasked the officers with resolving any pending NOC issues with the Road Construction Department within a week.
Minister Naveen instructed that reports and agendas for meetings on waterlogging be provided to concerned MLAs, the Mayor, and the Deputy Mayor a day in advance. He emphasized the need to take the MLAs’ suggestions seriously and proposed weekly and monthly review meetings to ensure continuous monitoring. Additionally, he mandated 24-hour surveillance of every sump house to monitor rainfall and drainage.
The review meeting was attended by Kumhrar MLA Arun Kumar Sinha, Digha MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia, Phulwarisharif MLA Gopal Ravidas, Mayor Sita Sahu, Principal Secretary Anand Kishore, and officials from Budko, the Road Construction Department, and the Water Resources Department.
The author is a Patna based journalist
