The former councilor of Coal town’s ward 15, Ranjit Singh, carried out a unique protest on Wednesday by sleeping in a muddy unconstructed drain to draw attention towards the problem of inundation due to drain water overflow faced by over 50 thousand residents of Shivpuri locality in Bhuli.

“The drain water of several localities, including Kasiatand, Aambagan , Bhuli D block, C Block, E block enters several houses of Shivpuri locality due to overflow caused by lack of concretisation and embankment of drains,” said Singh from the protest site, accompanied by several other residents of Shivpuri.

“Yesterday itself the boundary wall of the house of one Lakshman Paswan of Shivpuri collapsed due to his house being inundated due to drain water overflowing under the impact of monsoon,” charged Singh and added that not just houses but several shops in the main market of Bhuli and Shakti market also gets inundated due to drain water.

“We have been demanding the construction of drains for the last five years and former Dhanbad Mayor Chandreshekhar Agarwal also visited Bhuli to inspect the site two years ago and following which an estimate for construction of 4000 meters of drain was prepared but the project is yet to start and as a result we are compelled to live in a virtual hell,” said Singh.

“I don’t know that what is the problem of the Municipal Commissioner Satyendra Kumar with Bhuli that he claims that the drain construction work is the responsibility of BCCL as colony belongs to BCCL but the fact remains that all of us at Shivpuri in Bhuli regularly pay holding tax, property tax and other taxes collected by Dhanbad Municipal Corporation regularly,” said Singh.

“If our day-long protest elicits no response from the Dhanbad Municipal Corporation authorities, then we will be compelled to block the bridge near A block,” said Singh.

Extending support to the protest carried out by the former councillor, Ashok Singh, a local resident of Shivpuri locality of Bhuli said, “Everyone in our locality is compelled to live amidst stink, foul smell and continuous threat of outbreak of disease due to overflowing drains as no initiative has been taken by Dhanbad Municipal Corporation to solve the problem of drain water in our area.”

Efforts to contact city manager of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation Md Anis in this regard failed as he didn’t respond to any calls.