It has been two weeks since the drain tragedy occurred in which an 11-year old girl drowned in front of Pinnacle tower, but the residents of Desire Residency in Ahinsa Khand II, Indirapuram are still living in a state of fear. Reason? Well, the callous and apathetic attitude being showed by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) towards their long pending issue of an uncovered drain, flowing in front of their society.
Residents complain the drain, which runs parallel to the society, is severely choked and left uncovered at many places, apart from the entry gate, where a ramp is built over it.
“Since last 7 years, we are repeatedly requesting officials of the authority to get it covered but they are consistently ignoring our plea,” Desire Residency’s AOA, Sanjay Maratha, alleged.
I have personally visited GDA’s office many times. I complained regarding this issue on authority’s website as well, but to no avail,” he added.
Maratha further said the society is even ready to cover the drain on their own expense but the GDA officials do not allow them to do so.
“They say they will not be able to clean the drain if we cover them,” Maratha stated.
Besides, the poor sanitation has made it a breeding ground for vector-borne diseases. Maratha told the society saw over 32 cases of Dengue and Chikungunya last year.
“This year, the count reduced to 12 as we all took extra care of ourselves,” he added.
Fed up with the constant negligence from the GDA, the residents resorted to a creative protest where they have put up hoardings on their boundary wall condemning the authority for not paying heed to their grievances.
One of the hoardings displayed a poem titled ‘Aakrosh’ written in Hindi. The poem was penned down by Vandana Maratha, a resident of the society. Vandana said the anger of availing zero facility despite paying all the taxes forced her to write this poem.
Meanwhile, Manvendra Singh, Executive Engineer of the GDA, seemed unaware of the matter but assured that he will look into the matter.
“Give me two three days, I will resolve their issue,” he said.
Alok Kumar, President of FedAOA termed it a ‘serious negligence’ that too after a big tragedy that happened recently.
“At least cover such drains with iron nets, it will also reduce the risk of such mishaps,” he said.
Recently, GDA-Vice Chairperson Kanchan Verma ordered for a new committee to prepare a report of all the blind spots, blind turns and uncovered drains in all the eight zones of the authority.
