AJYCP activists take out a rally in front of GMDA office in Guwahati on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Sept. 26: The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) today locked the office of the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) in protest against the failure of the department to solve the problem of artificial floods in the city.

The activists of AJYCP locked the GMDA office at Bhangagarh around 9am and staged a protest on the office premises demanding immediate solutions to the problems of waterlogging.

“The department, which is responsible for the development of the city, is apathetic towards the problem of flash floods. Besides, the department has also failed to provide safe drinking water to the residents, improve the condition of roads, nor made the roads litter-free,” Sanjeev Bora, general secretary, Guwahati city committee of the AJYCP, said. “Chief minister Tarun Gogoi claims that Assam is progressing and the government is endeavouring to make Guwahati one of the most developed cities in the country. However, we get to see the true picture of the development in the city after a single downpour.”

He said three agencies responsible for the development of the city — Guwahati development department (GDD), GMDA and Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) — have failed miserably to solve or mitigate the problems of the city.

“They have failed to solve the basic problems of the city. For the past 10 years we have been facing these problems and they seem to be never-ending. We will carry out similar protests at the GMC office. We want a definite reply from the authorities concerned about when and how they are going to solve these problems. Even the GMDA office is in a filthy condition, so how can we expect it to work for the development of the city?” Bora asked.

The protesters were arrested by Bhangagarh police at 11am.

“The GMDA is responsible for planning and zoning, but not directly responsible to solve the problem of waterlogging. However, the department has prepared a detailed project report for seven drain basins of Guwahati. A project proposal of around Rs 150 crore was also sent to the Centre for approval. But because of the non-sanction of funds, we were unable to execute the work. We have sent a fresh proposal for sanction of funds for the Noonmati and Bahini basins to the non-lapsable central pool of resources under the DoNER ministry. As soon as the proposal is approved and the funds are released, we will start the work for both the basins, which will solve the waterlogging problem to a large extent,” Pritam Saikia, chief executive officer, GMDA, said.