NEW DELHI: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Monday stated that they were being wrongly held responsible for the tragic drowning of a mother and her child in an open drain near Ghazipur paper market in east Delhi.
The autonomous body under Central government said that misinformation was being spread regarding both the department and Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, following a Delhi High Court order related to the case. The drain, according to the DDA, falls under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)’s jurisdiction.
The high court, in its ruling last Thursday, directed the DDA to compensate the family of the deceased - Tanuja (23) and her son Priyansh (3) - with Rs 20 lakh. The duo drowned after falling into a waterlogged open drain in July.
In response to the court’s decision, the DDA clarified that it had agreed to pay the compensation without admitting liability, purely on humanitarian grounds.
They reiterated that the drain was transferred to the MCD in March 2023, along with 9.9 km of roads, for which Rs 26.05 crore in deficiency charges were paid.
At a press conference on Friday, AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar criticised the L-G and the BJP, alleging that the deaths occurred in a DDA-managed drain. She demanded L-G’s resignation, accusing him and the BJP of defaming AAP by misattributing the deaths to an MCD-administered area.