Sambalpur: People living in low lying areas on the outskirts of this town are in panic over delay in completion of construction of flood shelter centres as several parts of the state faced flood situation in the past few days.
Over a thousand houses in Mudipada, Cheruapada, Thakurpada, Mandalia, Hirakud Colony, Bahalpada, Housing Board Colony, Binakhandi, Balibanda, Chandannagar and other parts of the town get marooned every year even after a minor rainfall and people have to be shifted to safer places.
It may be recalled that poor drainage system coupled with encroachment of several areas caused an artificial flood in 2014. In the absence of flood shelter centres, the administration had to shift hundreds of families to safer places and the victims were given relief materials for over a week.
To prevent such situation in future, the district administration had set up a shelter centre each near Samaleswari College and Binakhandi UP School at the cost of Rs 1.45 crore. Each centre is capable of providing shelter to over 100 people and equipped with a lobby, two big rooms, bath rooms and toilets. However, none of them has been completed.
Though, the administration has set up 34 temporary shelter centres and roped in some NGOs to manage them, residents are not happy with the arrangement.
“As the constructions of flood shelter sheds are yet to be completed, we have increased the number of temporary sheds where more than 5,000 people can be accommodated,” district emergency officer Sanjiv Kumar Pujari said.
The administration should ensure that the water flowing down from Budharaja hill release into Mahanadi; otherwise it would be difficult to prevent flood in the town, said Bharati Panda of Kalyan Nagar.
Subash Chandra Behera, a lawyer of the town, said the residents of low lying areas are set to suffer again due to the lack of foresightedness on the part of administration. PNN
