JAMMU: Traders of warehouse, Nehru Market staged a protest against Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) as the area witnessed intense water logging due to morning rains. Under the leadership of Deepak Gupta (president of Traders Federation, warehouse, Nehru Market, Jammu), traders sat on the road and raised slogans against JMC and Jammu Smart City Limited. They said that two cows died today due to water logging caused by rains behind the warehouse area where some Gujjar families were residing. They alleged that earlier, water used to drain from there into Tawi River but the drainage system was stopped under the Smart City Project. Sensing the anger among the people regarding this incident, JMC immediately sent a few JCB there and started cleaning the area. Municipal officials who reached the spot said that drainage of water from the area has not been stopped. Pipes were laid for drainage but due to dirt getting stuck in them, they got blocked, causing water logging in the area. While speaking on the occasion, Deepak Gupta criticized JMC for its failure to deal with the water logging and poor management of sewerage system in the area. He said that JMC has been exposed with a single day rainfall as several areas of Jammu inundated in the water. He said that they have always complained about the biased approach of the Corporation towards this area where the scattered garbage, choked drains and water logging has created problems for the traders. He said that the people were expecting better facilities under the Smart City Project but it seems that there was hardly any progress with regard to the implementation of the scheme which was launched with much pomp and show. Others present during the protest were Munish Mahajan (senior vice president), Abhimanyu Gupta (vice president), Vishal Gupta (secretary) and Charan Singh.
