NDMC suspends engineer over Lutyens’ waterlogging
After a heavy spell of rain submerged parts of Delhi’s posh Lutyens' area last week, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has suspended an executive engineer for dereliction of duty. The suspension comes days after major stretches and prominent places of the NDMC area got waterlogged on August 26, and its chairman, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, publicly apologised for the waterlogging situation and acknowledged that the response of the civic body had been short.
“There was more than 72 mm rainfall in less than 2 hours and this was quite unexpected, but this cannot be an excuse, and we will have to strengthen our systems to deal with such situations in future,” Dwivedi had posted on X.
He said that under usual circumstances they are able to clear waterlogging within 15-20 minutes. But despite their best efforts, in at least 3-4 areas, it took more than an hour to drain it out on this occasion. Afterwards, Delhi PWD Minister and NDMC ex-officio member Parvesh Saheb Singh held a meeting with NDMC officials on the waterlogging issue in the New Delhi area and stressed that negligence will not be tolerated.
“Strict directions were issued to take action against the concerned if waterlogging occurs again,” he had posted on X.
Parts of major stretches including Mandir Marg, Connaught Place outer circle and Sansad Marg were submerged and took longer than usual as drains got choked, requiring extra machinery to drain them out.
