Surat: Anger is spilling over in Surat’s Parvat area, where repeated flooding has turned frustration into open protest. Residents of Nandanvan Society have put up banners at their entry gates warning political parties not to enter the society seeking votes — citing years of unaddressed waterlogging caused by overflowing creeks.Floods have become an annual nightmare for this residential cluster, with this year marking the seventh consecutive monsoon of severe inundation, residents claim.“Around 10,000 people are affected in the Parvat area every year. Lakhs worth of valuables — vehicles, furniture — are destroyed, but our concerns are ignored,” said Gautam Patel, a local businessman.Earlier this week, several residential and commercial societies remained waterlogged for four days, prompting locals to consider putting up more such banners across the Parvat locality as a form of protest.Despite repeated complaints and representations to the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), the situation has not improved, residents allege. Measures like dredging and creek remodelling have not yielded lasting solutions.Locals point to unchecked development as a root cause. “There was no flooding earlier,” said Patel, “but ever since the textile markets came up near the creek and another creek’s water was diverted here through a pipeline, the problem worsened.”Another resident, Dinesh Patel, blamed faulty civic planning: “SMC built a 20-foot-wide road on both sides of the creek banks, reducing its natural capacity. Dredging is poorly done, if at all. The problem persists year after year.”With no foolproof plan in sight for the next monsoon, frustration is growing.Mahendra Rajpurohit, a resident and AAP’s general secretary, said, “We are trapped in our homes multiple times each monsoon. The air stinks, children miss school, and elders can’t go to work. This is no way to live.”
