CUTTACK: Citizens of the Millennium City woke up to flood-like situation on Saturday after it was lashed with heavy rains since morning.The streets, lanes and by-lanes across the city were submerged in rain water and people were water-locked in their houses. Over three lakh people were affected as rain water along with drain water gushed into their houses at around 4am while they were still in their sleep.“At around 4.30am, I woke up in utter shock when I found that water has reached upto my bed. All articles in my house were floating in drain water that gushed into my house along with rain water,” said Jatadhari Rout, a resident of Pithapur.Normal life was thrown out of gear in the entire city. People were not able to come out of their houses as streets across the city were inundated with knee-deep water. And what compounded the problem further was the water that remained stagnated throughout the day as there was no free-flow of rain water into the drains.Schools and Colleges in the city were closed to avoid inconvenience to the students. Notably, the city had witnessed a similar situation in 2007 as well.To deal with the situation, collector Sushant Mohapatra convened an emergency meeting of all stakeholders and directed all officers to take immediate steps to flush out rainwater. To provide relief to the residents of the worst affected areas, administration distributed cooked food to over 8000 persons.The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) deployed over 200 motor pumps to flush out the rain water from the affected areas.“In a span of five to six hours, Cuttack received 211mm of rainfall, which is rare. About 15 to 20 high power motor-pumps got drowned in the rain water and turned defunct due to which we faced hiccups in clearing the rain water from water logged areas initially,” said CMC commissioner, Bikash Mohapatra.“However, we arranged additional motor pumps from the fire department and have deployed over 200 motor pumps to flush out rain water from the city,” added Mohapatra.Looking at the grave situation, leaves and holidays of all the staff of the CMC have been cancelled till Monday. At least 20 special teams have been formed by administration comprising 200 officers to move around the city and review the situation.The worst affected areas were Nandi Sahi, Pithapur, Sutahat, Roxy Lane, Badambadi, Tulasipur, Deula Sahi, Makarbag, Mehendipur, Pattapole, Professorpara, Stewertpatna, Odia Bazaar.Even the posh localities like Cantonment road, collector’s residential office at Kanika Chhak and Bidanasi police station were also under water.The official documents and furniture at the collector’s residential office were floating in the rain water and the entire office premise was flooded in knee-deep water.The traffic movement in the city came to a grinding halt, as rain water was flowing on major junctions like Badambadi and Madhupatna. Meanwhile, local residents in Cuttack have blamed the lack of preparedness on part of and district administration to deal with such emergency.“People of Cuttack suffered due to the man-made calamity designed by the CMC officials. The drains were not cleaned and de-silted properly that posed hurdle in free flow of rain water. In 2007 , the city had witnessed similar situation still the authorities took no precautions,” said Congress leader, Mohammed Moquim.

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