WITH MONSOON COMES MISERY

The first monsoon rains on Saturday brought a much needed respite to the citizens who have been fasting in the sweltering month of August. As people left their homes to enjoy the heavy rain and cool breeze, they were met by one of the worst traffic jams in the city this year on flooded roads with deplorable drainage arrangements.
Every major road in the city was clogged with traffic that stayed jammed for several hours leading up to Iftar.
Construction on the Bus Rapid Transit project on Ferozepur Road caused traffic congestion along the entire stretch from Chungi Amar Sidhu to Chowk Yadgar near Minar-e-Pakistan. Stranded commuters were seen criticizing Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for uprooting the main artery of the city in the middle of rainy season.
“This road has been uprooted and rebuilt; only to be uprooted again,” said an irate motorcyclist at Kalma Chowk, “it’s as if the government keeps having these random after thoughts just to inconvenience the common man,” he said, identifying himself only by his first name Mushtaq.
Roads leading to Lakshmi Chowk, Mozang, Ichhra, China Chowk, Mall Road, Mayo Hospital, Wahdat Colony, Shah Alam Chowk, Mcleod Road, Lahore Railway Station up to Badami Bagh, and all link roads were bottlenecked to the hilt.
TRAFIC POLICE GIVES UP: Mohammed Aslam, a rickshaw driver on The Mall told Pakistan Today that the traffic wardens had given up trying to direct traffic altogether and just stood in a corner while cars rammed into each other trying to get ahead.
This was all happening just an hour before Iftar as people were clamoring to reach their homes to break their fast.
MEDICAL EMERGENCIES: However the spirit of Ramadan seemed to have eluded most drivers on the roads who even refused to allow passage to ambulances. Six ambulances were stuck in the massive melee of rubber and honking only five minutes away from Mayo Hospital.
A six year old girl, Aliha Khan fell from a rooftop and was severely injured. Her father Imran Khan was taking her to the Services Hospital in an ambulance that got stuck in traffic on Jail Road. Aliha was in such a serious condition that he had to carry her to the hospital on foot himself, as the traffic refused to budge for the ambulance. She is currently in the emergency ward at the Services Hospital in critical state.
A medical officer at the hospital said, “We’ve had several cases at the emergency ward today, people injured in traffic accidents and other rain related incidents have been flooding in.”
As load shedding, never far way, hit all the major areas and traffic junctions in the city, the police resigned itself from trying to direct traffic in an orderly fashion and were seen sitting on the curb looking out on the roads with feint interest.
TRAGEDIES: Several tragic and untoward incidents took place throughout the city due to the heavy rainfall.
A house roof collapsed in Baghbanpura, killing 16-year-old Rida. A rickshaw driver got severely injured when a tree in Defense F-Block collapsed on his vehicle. In Shahdara, five cows were electrocuted at Latif Park.
Electricity outages took place for several hours at a stretch in Garhi Shahu, Scheme Morr, Ring Road, Choong, Rachna Town, Harbanspura, Empress Road, Anarkali, Gawalmandi, Data Darbar, Shera Kot, Sabzazar, Nisbat Road, Mughalpura, Dharampura, Chahmiran, Iqbal Town, Walton and several other residential areas, placing quite a damper on the congenial mood Monsoon rains had evoked.
“To think they can’t even produce electricity with all this water, but instead have to ruin such perfectly good weather for us,” said Madiha Rasool, a housewife in Iqbal Town.
FLOOD WARNINGS: Newly constructed roads were most flooded as arrangements for rainwater seepage, seemed to have been completely overlooked by the authorities. Moreover roads in Defense and Main Boulevard were water logged and pedestrians and cyclists waded through water trying to reach their destination.
Monsoon showers bring bouts of load shedding, water logged passages, dengue outbreaks and flooding in several areas of Lahore ever year. Since this is an annual occurrence, it is disappointing to say the least that no precautionary have been taken, as is evident by the mayhem that ensued at every traffic junction and road in the city on Saturday.
A car driver Aslam Sheikh bemoaned, “It’s been 65 years and our politicians still don’t learn from their mistakes.”