Dehradun: Heavy rainfall in past 24 hours wreaked havoc in Dehradun on Wednesday with water logging visible in many localities such as Dalanwala, Indira Nagar, Govindgarh, railway station area, Darshal Lal Chowk, Bindal Colony, Ishwar Vihar in Ladpur, Bindal bridge, Shastri Nagar and Vasant Vihar.Around 130 mm of overnight rainfall created strong current in the rivers that destroyed many houses with walls crumbling down. Strong winds uprooted trees at Buddha Chowk, Indira Nagar and Tyagi Road, and a car was washed away in the currents of Rispana at Ladpur.In city areas rain water continued to play havoc. Pankaj Kumar, a resident of Indira Nagar, said, “Waterlogging of four to five was witnessed in all areas of the city and it took a lot of time for the water level to recede. The civic body claimed to have cleared the clogging of drains but I now wonder what work they did.”Water from the city’s two major seasonal rivers — Rispana and Bindal — entered slums built on the riverbed and low lying areas of the city. The inundation affected around 5,000 slum dwellers and laid bare the tall claims of the civic body which claimed to have carried out all preparations ahead of the monsoons.Former congressman MLA Rajkumar said that around 5,000 slum dwellers have been affected and the government should make some immediate arrangements for their rehabilitation.With waters reaching the knee, residents of Sanjay Colony, Bhagat Singh Colony, and Puran Valmiki Colony on Rispana and Bindal river beds had to rush to safety from their homes.Nirmala Singh, 61, a resident of Bhagat Singh Colony, said, “We had built our homes using tin sheds and tarpaulin. I have never witnessed such damage in the past 40 years that I have spent here. All our food, bedding and even the firewood has either been swept away or contaminated with sewer water. The civic body conducted so many drives and claimed to take all measures, but now we know that none of their claims were true.”While both district administration and civic officials said that efforts are on to restore normalcy to the affected colonies, Nirmala added, “I am stuck here since morning and not a single government official has come forward to help. Some people said that more heavy rainfall is predicted in the next two days. With nobody coming forward to help, we will have to fix our shanties ourselves before the next spell of rains.”Officials, however, said that relief work is being carried out on priority. “We have sent separate teams to all the locations. While some workers are clearing the rivers, electric motors are being used to pump water out of the residential areas,” said municipal commissioner Vijay Kumar Jogdande.District magistrate SA Murugesan said that teams of State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Relief Force along with police and civic officials are working to provide relief to the people and plans are being chalked to rehabilitate the slum dwellers as well. “We are setting up relief camps in schools and colleges to relocate the affected people,” he said.Meanwhile, heavy rainfall and relief work stalled demolition drive in the city. However, officials marked 293 structures for demolitions.

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