JOIN USThe Bihar government has sought help from the Army to make a bridge to help people move across Patna, which remained submerged in rain and drain water for the eighth consecutive day on Wednesday.
“The Army has been called in to make an alternative bridge on a drain in Rajendra Nagar. The old bridge is hampering the outflow of accumulated water. It will be demolished and a new one will be constructed in its place in November-December this year,” Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said.
Many residential areas in Patna, including Rajendra Nagar, Kankarbagh, Patliputra Colony and Kadam Kuan, are under two to three feet of water, affecting a majority of the 20 lakh population in the city.
Manjhi slammed the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the severe waterlogging in the state capital since August 13, saying it failed to drain out the water.
The PMC could not even spend the Rs 27 crore provided recently by the government to buy equipment to clear waterlogging, the chief minister said.
Manjhi said no work was being done in the PMC and people were suffering due to infighting between the mayor and the municipal commissioner.
Manjhi also asked Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh to look for an alternative way to bypass the quarrelling mayor and commissioner so that the people did not suffer.
Summoned by the Patna High Court in a suo motu case, the chief secretary appeared before a division bench of Justices V N Sinha and P K Jha on Wednesday and assured judges that waterlogging would be cleared in the next 48 hours, provided there was no further rainfall.