Following the collapse of an overhead water tank in Eldeco Udyan-2 colony on Rae Bareli Road last Thursday, government and the mayor formed separate inquiry committees to find out the cause of damage. The committee formed by the MayorThe committee comprised corporator leaders from the three parties-Congress, SP and BJP, additional municipal commissioner, Vishal Bharadwaj, chief engineer, nagar nigam, GM and the secretary of Jal Sansthan and executive engineer of Jal Nigam, Lucknow. Vishal Bharadwaj and the three corporator leaders suggested that Jal Sansthan should appoint a team of structural engineers from IIT Kanpur, IET, Lucknow or HBTI (Harcourt Butler Technological Institute), Kanpur to conduct a technical inspection of the tanks over next 10 days which have been found in ramshackle condition. Water tanks in Gomtinagar, one of the posh colonies of city, were found in a very poor condition. Out of the 11 over-head water tanks handed over by LDA in 2008, 8 tanks were not working at that time. Till date, six of them are still dysfunctional according to the report. Jal Sansthan told that in spite of them asking LDA many times to provide them records of the map, structure-design and quality-control during construction, the authority has not been able to provided details to them. To manage the crisis, the mayor has asked officials to prepare a proposal to provide Rs 70 lakh for construction of a new tank in place of the damaged one and also allocate Rs 2 crore under 13th finance commission for the repair work of dilapidated and leaking water tanks. He instructed committee to submit report to the municipal commissioner, R K Singh within next 15 days, so that he can take necessary action on the same. From these facts inferred on the basis of a Times of India news, it appears that for managing the water resources responsibly our Local Bodies, GMs of Jal Nigam, Mayors & Administrators, there is no single person who is ultimate responsible person like we have in the case of factories- an occupier- so defined under Factories Act. I would request those who care for water conservation, environment, health, safety, social responsibility - to review this situation so that an optimal utilization of this scarce National Resource namely Water is done in a more caring & responsible manner by our Administration, Local Bodies, Development Authority. Why the GM Jal Nigam has to keep watching the tanks in substandard conditions? Why LDA leaves gaps between water & sewer line supplied areas? Why 2 committees have been formed? Whose ego is getting hurt when only 1 committee had worked to avoid the obvious duplication of efforts and wastage of scarce, precious public funds? These are serious issues begging for answers from some one who could be listening but is knowingly overlooking these basic issues.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 15:14:57 +0000