Complaining that most of the drains in the city have not been cleaned before the onset of monsoons this year, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva urged the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to take suo moto cognizance of the irregularities behind the drain cleaning and initiate an inquiry against concerned agencies.
He said every year, an exercise of cleaning of the drains, be it 18 major drains like Najafgarh drain, East Delhi drain, Barapullah drain, Delhi Gate drain, along with 700-odd smaller drains are cleaned before monsoon. This time, however, Delhi is facing the worst-ever waterlogging crisis indicating a scam in the desilting of drains.
Earlier, he recalled waterlogging used to be experienced at the start of the monsoon and after one or two spells of rain, the problem would recede with the clearance of the accumulated water within hours. This time, the rainwater accumulated in the streets is not cleared for even 10 to 12 hours in some places.
Sachdeva claimed that on Friday, Delhi’ites witnessed the worst-ever waterlogging at Kirari, Paharganj, Kalkaji, Munirka, Mehrauli, Kotla Mubarkpur, Sangam Vihar, Devli, Saket, Minto Bridge, ITO, Rajghat, Jahangirpuri, Laxmi Nagar, Geeta Colony and some other places as well.
The Delhi BJP chief hit out at the civic agencies including Delhi Jal Board, PWD, and MCD for failing to resolve the waterlogging crisis in the city.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the MCD Raja Iqbal Singh alleged that the AAP government is not learning any lesson from repeated waterlogging in the city even as the people are suffering from it.
He alleged the government neither cleans the drains nor does it make any arrangements for proper drainage of rainwater.
He asked the mayor to come on the ground and solve the problems faced by the people due to the waterlogging.