Mayor Soumini Jain felt that the recent flooding in the city was the outcome of a combination of factors.
“If it rains during high tide, it will take some time for the flood waters to clear from the city streets. It can spell trouble for the city if the line departments fail to deliver,” said Ms. Jain when asked about the LDF councillors’ allegations against her.
Meanwhile, the Mayor said one could not blame the civic body.
“The cleaning-up of small drains was done in time. As regards major canals, there has been some delay, which was caused by technical snags on the Local Self Government Department website. The site was shut down for nearly a month from April, and the civic body could not upload its files on the Thevara-Perandoor canal,” she clarified.
Eventually, when the processing work was over, contractors refused to take up work, and it had to be re-tendered, she added.
Ms. Jain declined to comment on Congress MLA Hibi Eden’s charge that the corporation had failed to do the pre-monsoon work, which, he said, had resulted in flooding.
