AN ELDERLY resident of Sector 45 narrowly escaped a fall, while he was returning from the Central Market in the area. He nearly fell into an open manhole. He lodged a complaint with the residents welfare association (RWA) imploring it to ask the civic authorities to cover all the manholes in the colony. Similarly, Dr J. C. M. Dutta, a senior resident who is also a veterinary doctor, had earlier informed the RWA about a piglet falling into a manhole. "The piglet died. I could not drag him out from the deep manhole," said Dutta.
A manhole next to house no.1289 was left uncovered for a long time by the civic authorities despite regular complaints from the residents living nearby "We had to cover it with slabs to save our children from accidents," said the owner of house no. 1289, Dr C. M. Mathur About 70-75 per cent manhole covers are missing in the entire sector.
Residents have covered many of them with slabs. "We have failed to draw the attention of the HUDA authorities," said the RWA president, Man Mohan Gupta. "The RWA has raised the issue of the open manholes in each of its meetings with the HUDA but the department has not taken any action so far. It is surprising how these manhole covers have disappeared within the last three to six months. The authorities has not paid any attention despite repeated warnings by the RWA," said Gupta. The RWA members say that the manhole covers have been stolen. "We suspect that there is a racket operating in connivance with the junior level staff of HUDA since they fetch money," added Gupta. "We took up the matter in the district grievance committee meeting also," said the RWA vice president, Col (retd) R. S. Yaday. Senior Divisional Officer of Division V, HUDA, Ashok Kumar Gupta, said, "We have instructed the staff to carry out a survey on uncovered manholes. We hope that this problem will be sorted out soon as we are already on job."
Source:Hindustan Times July24th,2008.
