Ahead of monsoon, blame game has started among agencies over desilting of drainages across the city. The civic agencies such as municipal corporations, Public Works Department (PWD) and Flood & Irrigation department, responsible for maintaining drains in the national Capital, appear to have failed in synchroising their efforts to clear the clogged drains before the onset of monsoon.
The civic bodies instead of clearing the drains, are busy in their favourite pastime of passing the buck game to shrug off their responsibilities, knowing it fully well that vector-borne diseases proliferate during rainy season as water accumulates in part of the city owing to choked drains.
A senior official of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) said that the corporation has taken up measures on 'war footing' to prevent water-logging during the monsoon. "We have already started desilting drains but the attitude of the other agencies are lackadaisical.
The corporation maintains 195 drains and efforts have been initiated to unclog them all before monsoon, he said, adding that the drains under the PWD are in pathetic conditions. "As all the drains of the North Corporation have been merged with PWD drains, many have been found choked. The main problem is that as the bigger drains have not been cleaned, water starts coming back (into the smaller drains). Mosquitoes that cause chikungunya and dengue breed in the stagnant mush," he said.
The official said that the Corporation has been approaching various agencies responsible for maintaining the work but despite the continuous requests, the authorities under the Delhi Government have failed to even show a positive sign.
However, a senior PWD official said that the process of cleaning choked drains has been started and many of drains have been cleared till now and we will achieve the target of complete desilting before the monsoon.
Meanwhile, The North Delhi Mayor Avtar Singh inspected various drains under its jurisdiction on Friday and directed officials to unclog it within 15 days.
Mayor also directed officials to write to the 'Public Works Department' (PWD) highlighting the pathetic conditions of the drains maintained by it. "All the larger drains are under the jurisdiction of the PWD and it has not lifted silt which may create the problem of water logging during the monsoon," he said.
He said that all the larger drains are under the jurisdiction of the PWD, from which silt has not been removed which may arise the problem of water clogging during the monsoon.
During the inspection of Mundka-Phirni Road, Mayor asked the officials to remove silt out of all the drains. He told that he will be re-inspecting the area again in next 15 days.
While inspecting Mundka Railway under Bridge, Singh instructed officials to resolve the problem of water clogging inside railway under bridge as soon as possible so that the citizens don't face any problem in commuting
Amid tussle between the agencies, experts feared that Delhi may face the worst dengue and chikungunia outbreak this year due to the ongoing drama. What worries them the most is that with water loggings being the 'Achilles Heel' of the national Capital? The civic agencies responsible for maintaining drains in the city have keep indulging in blaming one another.