The drainage system in your locality needs repair. Write a letter to the Municipal Commissioner stating the problems caused due to this. Suggest solutions to improve the situation.

MODEL ANSWER

14, Lake View Road Kolkata 700029

17 February 2026

The Municipal Commissioner Kolkata Municipal Corporation 5, S.N. Banerjee Road Kolkata 700013

Subject: Urgent repair of the drainage system at Lake View Road

Sir,

I write on behalf of the residents of Lake View Road and the adjoining lanes to request urgent attention to the drainage system in our locality, which has not been repaired in over a decade.

The problems it causes are serious. The drains are choked along the entire stretch, so that even an hour of moderate rain floods the road to knee height and water enters the ground-floor homes near the junction. The standing water does not drain for two or three days, and it has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes — there were nine cases of dengue in our lane alone last September. Two of the drain covers near the school gate are broken and missing, which is a grave danger to children walking home. The smell during the summer months makes it impossible to keep windows open.

May I respectfully suggest the following measures:

1. The drains along Lake View Road may be desilted and cleared before the coming monsoon.
2. The broken drain covers near the school gate may be replaced immediately, as a temporary safety measure if not a permanent one.
3. A regular schedule of cleaning — once a quarter, and once monthly during the rains — may be introduced, so that the problem does not simply recur.
4. Fogging for mosquito control may be carried out in the locality after the desilting is complete.

I shall be grateful if the matter is looked into before the monsoon sets in. The residents are willing to meet your office at any convenient time.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully, Ria Sen (Secretary, Lake View Road Residents’ Association)

WHAT THIS QUESTION SPECIFICALLY REQUIRES

TWO tasks, and the second is compulsory:

1. STATE THE PROBLEMS caused by the faulty drainage
2. SUGGEST SOLUTIONS

A letter that only complains cannot earn full content marks, however well written. Number the suggestions so the examiner sees them at a glance.

BE SPECIFIC ABOUT THE PROBLEMS. "It causes a lot of inconvenience" is worth little; flooding to knee height, nine dengue cases, missing drain covers near a school gate are worth the marks. Three or four distinct problems is the right number.

MAKE THE SOLUTIONS PRACTICAL. Suggesting that the Corporation "build a new drainage system for the whole city" is not a suggestion an official could act on. Desilting before the monsoon is.

REGISTER: courteous and impersonal throughout. No sarcasm, no threats, no exclamation marks. FORMAT AND MARKS DIVISION: see the Formal Letter and Informal Letter references in the Writing Formats & Marking (Reference) chapter.

USE THIS AS A MODEL, NOT AS AN ANSWER TO MEMORISE. The question asks for an ORIGINAL composition, and every year examiners identify scripts reproduced from guide books; a memorised answer can be penalised for plagiarism and will in any case read as borrowed. Study this piece for its STRUCTURE — how it opens, how the paragraphs are ordered, where the required tasks are answered, how it ends — and then write your own, about your own school, your own family, your own town. Your own specific detail is worth more marks than anyone else’s polished sentence.