AAP, Delhi govt. commerce blame over waterlogging, state of civic companies following downpour

The Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) criticised the Delhi authorities over the “lack” of civic preparedness, which led to site visitors snarls and waterlogging within the metropolis following a downpour on Saturday. Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh responded by sharing purported movies of waterlogged stretches throughout AAP’s 11-year tenure and clips of the identical spots, the place no stagnant water may very well be seen, to exhibit the progress below the BJP authorities.

During this yr’s heavier-than-usual monsoon, the Delhi authorities has fended off assaults from the Opposition over the alleged lack of civic preparedness by asserting that the stormwater drains had been desilted in time, at the same time as AAP has dared the federal government to launch an audit report on the desilting works.

‘Collapse of companies’

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) within the Assembly Atishi shared movies on X purportedly exhibiting heavy waterlogging in Palam, Dhaula Kuan, and Saket.

“On Raksha Bandhan, all the metropolis is submerged. People can’t step out of their houses. The collapse of governance below (Chief Minister) Rekha Gupta’s authorities is stopping brothers from assembly their sisters,” stated the LoP in an X put up.

The former CM stated that AAP had demanded a dialogue on waterlogging within the Assembly, however the authorities averted the controversy regardless of promising to resolve the difficulty.

In a letter to Ms. Gupta, the LoP highlighted a water provide disaster in her constituency of Kalkaji because of the pumping station within the space getting “fully submerged” and charged the federal government with “stalling and collapsing” inside six months of coming to energy.

“I’m heartbroken to say that this case will not be a pure calamity. This is the results of administrative negligence,” wrote Ms. Atishi, urging the CM to direct the PWD Minister to take “rapid steps to revive water provide in Kalkaji”.

‘Continuous work’

Earlier within the day, whereas posting movies on X to point out how the federal government has labored to forestall waterlogging-prone spots from being inundated, Mr. Singh stated in a comment in Hindi: “Nigambodh Ghat, Minto Bridge, Mahipalpur, Saket — the place water used to build up each monsoon, now site visitors passes via with out stopping.”

“This change didn’t occur by likelihood,” he stated, including, “Our authorities has been working constantly to get rid of waterlogging and enhance town that was ruined by AAP’s negligence.” The Minister has repeatedly stated that whereas his division is doing all it could actually to forestall waterlogging, it can’t undo “11 years of neglect” by the AAP authorities.

Traffic diversions

Reports of inundated stretches, uprooted timber, and heavy site visitors got here from many elements of the nationwide capital all through the day. Traffic was diverted from the Azad Market railway underpass, Ram Bagh Road, and different flooded stretches. Delhi Traffic Police issued a number of advisories on diversions on X, one in all which urged commuters to go for Delhi Metro companies.