Aurangabad, Sept 8:
BJP women's wing staged a demonstration, in front of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), today evening. The agitators claimed the torrential rain for more than an hour played havoc in the lives of people staying in hundreds of localities in the city. The rainwater stormed in their houses and shops from commercial markets. The height was standing pools of water was of three feet or more. Ironically, the Fire Brigade section was able to provide relief by attending to 25 complaints in the last 24 hours. The agitators pointed out that the water from the remaining areas was not removed on the second day as well. An air of disappointment prevailed as not a single ward engineer or ward officer turned up to extend help. Hence the protest against civic officials was organised.
It seems the AMC failed to guess the severity of the natural disaster. The spell of rain was huge from 7.30 pm to 9.45 pm on Tuesday. More than hundreds of localities went underwater. The citizens and shopkeepers had to perform exercises in arranging essential commodities and save their belongings. The rainwater was not released for hours at a stretch. The fire brigade stations received 100 telephone calls in a span of two hours. However, the fire brigade teams could settle the 26 plaints (calls) from Tuesday 9 pm to Wednesday 7 pm.
Tuesday Evening
The fire brigade teams from 7.30 pm to 10.40 pm removed rainwater stormed in the houses at Cidco N-4, Pundaliknagar, Saraswat Bank vicinity, Gurusahaninagar, K K Divekar's shop, Ajaydeep Complex in N-3, Bajaj near Chhatrapati College, Diwan Deodi, Fakirwadi, the underground of a building at Roshan Gate till late in the night, shops in Gomtesh Market and Aushadhi Bhavan, Balajinagar etc. The team also attended a call reporting about a person flown in the river at Gevrai Tanda, but nothing was found at the spot. The water was also removed from many shops in the Aurangapura area. The firefighters also saved a woman from flowing in a nullah near a cloth shop on Tilak Path, apart from lifting a car dipped in water and saving its occupants at Itkheda.
Wednesday Morning
The fire brigade teams were active in attending the calls from 7.15 am to 10.00 am. In this period, the fire-fighters removed a tree lying on road near Divisional Sports Complex; water from many houses in Sahara City (on Beed Bypass); water from a school in Motiwalanagar (opposite to MGM Hospital); water from a nullah near Allana Company to find out a person; water from Khinvsara Park near Riddhi-Siddhi Hall; water from many houses in Zambad Estate, Jadhavwadi etc. The officials and personnel also started works to remove water from 25 different localities including Osmanpura, Mayur Park, Jawahar Colony and Kranti Chowk.