NAWALPUR: Irate locals have padlocked the office of Gaindakot municipality in Nawalpur.

The local residents resorted to lock out the municipality office on Sunday when the people’s representatives remained apathetic to resolve the issue of recurring inundation. Incessant rain occurred since Wednesday night had submerged local houses.

As many as 400 households of Gaindakot-4 in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta-East) were submerged following torrential rain. The flood survivors had padlocked the administrative building of the municipality to pile pressure on the people’s representatives to resolve the problem.

Tirtha Poudel, a local of Gaindakot-4, voiced his complaint on the ignorance of the local government even when locals’ houses are waterlogged and people are in a situation to abandon their place. He said the unplanned settlement and lack of water outlet arrangement have invited such catastrophic situation.

Most of the one-storied building are submerged in ward-4, shared Amin Shrestha, a local, adding the municipality is trying to avoid the problem by pointing finger at ward office. “The disgruntled locals were forced to padlock the administrative building after they were not convinced of the response of the authorized people”, he added.

Ward-4 chairperson Krishna Prasad Neupane said the ward alone cannot give outlet to the problem so it required coordinated works of the entire municipality and other stakeholders.

Municipality mayor Chhtara Raj Poudel said the problem of inundation is recurring in the area and its temporary solution would be resolved for now. “We would give outlet to the pooled water by constructing temporary structures”, he assured. (RSS)