Civic bodies must ensure drains are cleaned by June first week, urban development and housing department secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey said on Tuesday.

Choubey, in his directive to all civic body heads through a videoconference at state secretariat Project Bhavan in Ranchi, sought cleaning of all minor and major drains, and known water accumulation points by early June.

According to the Met centre in Ranchi, monsoon is likely to hit the state in mid-June.

Eight municipal corporations, two notified area committees (Jamshedpur and Mango), 21 nagar parishads and 19 nagar panchayats are governed by the state urban development and housing department.

Choubey said the objective of the order is to ensure drains and water accumulation points clogged by solid waste are cleaned much before pre-monsoon rains and the advent of monsoon so that torrential rains do not flood roads and residential areas.

The heads of all 50 civic bodies have been directed to immediately prepare micro-action plans city- and ward-wise to prevent waterlogging during the rainy season and submit it to the state urban development department so that work starts at each of the problem points at the earliest before arrival of the monsoon.

State urban development authority (Suda) director Shashi Ranjan said the department has asked urban local bodies to take advantage of the lockdown and clean drains as in some places it would require removal of slabs. “Civic bodies can utilise funds under the urban utilities head for water and sewerage projects to clean drains. All cleaning of clogged drains must be complete by the first week of June at any cost,” Ranjan said.

“Separate micro-plans should be made for cities and wards in each of the civic bodies on steps being taken to clean big and small drains, as well as the manpower required to do the job. The micro-plan should also have details of water accumulation points of each ward during monsoon. The plan would help the department take early steps like beefing up manpower, machinery or funds for cleaning such spots,” said a senior official of the state urban development department. “The directive is aimed at instilling a sense of urgency among the civic bodies, who are busy sanitising and cleaning wastes amid Covid-19.”