Jammu welcomed its first spell of pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday morning which brought down the temperature and relief from the prevailing humidity of the past few days but brought in familiar concerns of widespread traffic jams, water logging in various parts of the city with muck and mounds of plastic floating on the streets belying all the tall claims of bracing up for Monsoon by the administration. Most of the city roads were reportedly submerged in knee-deep water and the worst stretch being the road in front of the GGM Science College with the Nullah throwing out all the muck of the city to the road. This is not the first time, every time rain comes this stretch has the same old story. And people too have become habitual to the floating dirt and they wade through comfortably. The yearly desilting of drains and Nullahs remains always a slow process and Jammu Municipal Corporation as usual has been prompt in issuing statements about the clearing work. This is just pre-monsoon rains which has hit city sending the whole system for a toss and when the full furry opens one can imagine what would be the state of affairs in Jammu city which has been lining up for Smart City status. Jammu has recorded whopping 71.4 mm of rain during the last 24 hours from 8:30 AM on Tuesday. This is the third time in the last 10 years that the city has recorded such good amount of rain. These were showers spurred by the monsoon circulation which inundated many localities of the city with flooding of houses. The civic authorities have to work out some alternative to save the residents from the yearly hardships and not just carryout the futile exercise of desilting and clearing of the vintage drainage system which was never designed to carry the ever increasing population.
