NEW DELHI: The civic bodies of the national capital claim that the drains which overflowed on Sunday after heavy showers fall under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government’s PWD department. They further claim that the reasoning behind this is because the drains were not desilted.
“We had already started work on keeping a check on the drains. I was unhappy with PWD work and I had anticipated waterlogging. The drains which filled up are under PWD and those were not cleaned. SDMC had done 28 metric ton of desilting, the smaller drains are all clean,” said SDMC Mayor Anamika Mithilesh.
“All the mayors are doing their bit. We at SDMC had gotten four suction machines, two of which were sent to the PWD to the areas where waterlogging took place. We had already told the PWD to get prepared and come for meetings, but we didn’t get much cooperation from their side. In the end, it’s unfortunately the common people who have to suffer,” she added.
North MCD Mayor Jai Prakash said that water logging at Minto Road or in other areas of Delhi at the beginning of monsoon is a result of negligence on part of PWD. He further said that despite repeated requests of North DMC, PWD had not desilted the drains in their jurisdiction, as a result of which acute
waterlogging took place in various places.
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“North MCD drains outfall in PWD drains, that’s why all civic agencies need to do their work on time. If the drains are not desilted properly then the water from small drains would not have outfall. The PWD and Delhi Jal Board officials were informed about the problem of waterlogging on the Minto Road railway underpass, but no one ever reached out further,” he said.
The north civic body notes that the water was immediately removed using its resources even though Minto Road railway underpass comes under the jurisdiction of the PWD. Jai Prakash further said that the PWD has to work more efficiently to avoid such issues. According to officials, the work for desilting began late owing to Covid-19 crisis as most staffers have either been engaged in Covid related duty.
Uttarakhand leader demands compensation for victim
Uttarakhand Congress Vice-President Dhirendra Pratap has demanded that the Delhi government pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of Kundan Kumar who drowned at the heavily waterlogged Minto Bridge underpass Sunday. Kumar, 56, belonged to Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand.
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