The Delhi Assembly’s ‘committee of petitions’ called upon the Chief Secretary, Naresh Kumar to discuss the action plan for de-silting to prevent waterlogging in the national Capital. The officials said that the committee was pained to see media reports regarding waterlogging due to lack of co-operation between relevant departments.
Kumar initially declined to appear, citing lack of jurisdiction of committee to enquire into matter. However, he later appeared before the committee along with Commissioner (MCD), Chairman (NDMC) and Principal Secretary (PWD) “It was discussed and agreed that all the executive engineers will submit a signed report regarding de-silting status of drains in their respective jurisdictions. This report will be consolidated by the HODs and will be submitted before the committee on August 1 this year,” said an official.
“It was also agreed thatdepartment will create and publish a duty roster whereby senior officials will physically verify de-silting status of various drains in their jurisdictions,” said official.
The Chief Secretary agreed that physical verification by senior officers can make a difference in services provided by departments and brings much needed accountability and transparency.
The committee also decided that from August 2, its members along with senior-most officers will randomly visit sites to verify the de-silting claims of the departments. According to the 2017 report of the Petitions Committee, it was seen that the departments had claimed that 95 per cent of the de-silting work was completed, however upon physical verification, these claims were found to be false.
The committee then recommended a thorough investigation to fix the accountability of the officials as crores of rupees of the taxpayers were being spent on de-silting while the on-ground work was dismal.
Thus, the committee has asked the Chief Secretary to submit the action taken report of the Government on the recommendations of Petitions Committee in 2017.