House caves in as heavy rain cripples Delhi
Torrential rain on Sunday morning crippled normal life in the national Capital with at least one person drowning in the flooded underpass at Minto Bridge and a house collapsing into a drain Anna Nagar near ITO. No one was present in the house at the time of the incident. Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) and fire engines rushed to the spot.
A 56-year-old man drowned while he was trying to cross the bridge in his vehicle, Tata Ace, on Sunday. The deceased identified as Kundan Kumar, a native of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, used to drive the vehicle to transport goods on hire basis.
Kundan was identified by his co-worker while a New Delhi yard trackman pulled out his body from the waterlogged underpass. A Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus also got stuck on the waterlogged road under Minto Bridge, following which fire department personnel arrived at the site to rescue its driver and conductor on-board. Kundan’s body was found floating in front of the bus. According to a senior police official, Kundan was travelling from New Delhi Railway Station towards Connaught Place via Minto Bridge on Sunday morning.
“Due to overnight rain, water was logged under the Minto Bridge and when Kundan tried to manoeuvre his vehicle through waterlogged underpass, he couldn’t succeed. It seems that Kundan died of drowning as no external injury marks were found on his body,” said the senior police official. Police said the vehicle, Tata Ace, which was being driven by Kundan is owned by his cousin Pritam. “Kundan is survived by his wife and two daughters,” said police.
Meanwhile, following the death of Kundan, the Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta condoled the death at Minto Bridge which comes under the Delhi PWD. Hitting hard at the AAP, Gupta said it is just the beginning of monsoon and asked the AAP dispensation to take concrete steps as soon as possible to prevent waterlogging.
Kejriwal said he had been in touch with the agencies and monitoring the process of removing water from there.
The CM said water had been drained from the Minto Bridge.
Kejriwal, in tweet said, “This year, all agencies, be it Delhi government or MCD (civic body), were busy in prevention of COVID-19. They faced many difficulties due to corona. This is not the time to blame each other. All have to fulfill their responsibilities together. Wherever there is waterlogging, we will try to pump out water immediately.”