Cantt board sees no monsoon emergency
LAHORE:
The second spell of monsoon rains have started but Lahore and Walton cantonment administrations are yet to set up emergency relief camps in their areas.
Most parts falling under the cantonment administration took more than 12 hours to be cleared of rain water on Wednesday.
Shafiq Ahmed, the Lahore Cantonment Board (LCB) secretary, said that no emergency camps were set up because they had not yet felt the need. “As long as arrangements to drain rain water are producing the desired results, there’s no need to establish emergency camps,” he said. He mentioned that LCB vehicles equipped with de-watering sets and suction pumps were patrolling the area round the clock.
The contentment expressed by the secretary notwithstanding life was far from normal in some parts of the cantonment. Walton Road and service lanes of Defence’s Main Boulevard remained flooded most of the day.
The basements of many shops on the service lanes were also flooded.
The shops remained close till as late as 4pm.
Cantonment Kutchery was another problem area. Its corridors and parking lanes turned into rain water ponds causing inconvenience for the visitors and the staff.
The road outside the court complex remained inundated causing traffic jams that lasted an hour after the rain had stopped.
“Our government departments are only good at planning stages, when it comes to execution they fail miserably,” Ferdous Amber, a Cantonment resident, said.
Parts of cantonment most affected by rain included Nishat Colony, RA Bazar, Pir Colony, Madina Colony, Qainchi, Chungi Amer Saddhu, Tufail Road and Phatak Chowk.
Hundreds of telephones went out of order while power outages were also reported from several areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2010
The second spell of monsoon rains have started but Lahore and Walton cantonment administrations are yet to set up emergency relief camps in their areas.
Most parts falling under the cantonment administration took more than 12 hours to be cleared of rain water on Wednesday.
Shafiq Ahmed, the Lahore Cantonment Board (LCB) secretary, said that no emergency camps were set up because they had not yet felt the need. “As long as arrangements to drain rain water are producing the desired results, there’s no need to establish emergency camps,” he said. He mentioned that LCB vehicles equipped with de-watering sets and suction pumps were patrolling the area round the clock.
The contentment expressed by the secretary notwithstanding life was far from normal in some parts of the cantonment. Walton Road and service lanes of Defence’s Main Boulevard remained flooded most of the day.
The basements of many shops on the service lanes were also flooded.
The shops remained close till as late as 4pm.
Cantonment Kutchery was another problem area. Its corridors and parking lanes turned into rain water ponds causing inconvenience for the visitors and the staff.
The road outside the court complex remained inundated causing traffic jams that lasted an hour after the rain had stopped.
“Our government departments are only good at planning stages, when it comes to execution they fail miserably,” Ferdous Amber, a Cantonment resident, said.
Parts of cantonment most affected by rain included Nishat Colony, RA Bazar, Pir Colony, Madina Colony, Qainchi, Chungi Amer Saddhu, Tufail Road and Phatak Chowk.
Hundreds of telephones went out of order while power outages were also reported from several areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2010