New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) Drawing flak for its shoddy preparations to prevent waterlogging during the monsoon, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Wednesday put the onus on the Delhi government for preparing a drainage action plan to check the menace.
The members of the BJP-ruled MCD’s standing committee, the highest decision making panel, also sought the help of other civic agencies in tackling the problem.
Heavy rains Monday evening led to traffic snarls in many parts of the city and people had to wade through knee-deep water at several places to reach their destination.
The matter came up for discussion in Wednesday’s meeting of the standing committee.
The members of the ruling BJP said that since only 80 days are only left for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games, the civic agencies should support each other instead of indulging in a blame game over waterlogging.
The MCD councillors alleged that about 80 percent of the waterlogging complaints came from areas under other civic agencies like the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Public Works Department (PWD), which comes under the Delhi government.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition and Congress leader in the civic agency J.K. Sharma accused the MCD of not completing the work of de-silting of drains resulting in the problem of waterlogging, a comment that was contested by the BJP councillors.
Speaking at the meeting, Municipal Commissioner K.S. Mehra said that MCD is not the only civic body responsible for waterlogging in the city.
‘The uncleared construction debris left on the roads by agencies like Public Works Department and Delhi Metro had prevented the water from flowing into the drains,’ he said.
‘We have prepared well for the rains, but when sudden heavy showers come it takes at least an hour for the water to clear out,’ he added.
He said the civic agency received 114 complaints of waterlogging, 14 of wall collapse and 144 of tree falling in the last two days. ‘But all the members of the civic body have done a good work to tackle the situation,’ he said.
He also pointed out that most of the unauthorised colonies in the capital don’t have proper drainage system resulting in waterlogging.
‘We found that most complaints have been received from such areas,’ Mehra said.
