sharbani banerjee
banerjee.sharbani@gmail.com
New Delhi, 10 July
The Tuesday’s heavy showers which led to massive water-logging at many parts of the Capital have exposed the lackadaisical attitude of the civic agencies about how ill-prepared they were for upcoming monsoons despite several reminders by the traffic police.
Even after the Delhi Traffic Police’s several reminders to the civic agencies to tackle water-logging problem in the areas which were likely to be worst affected due to upcoming monsoon, it seems all requests have fallen on deaf ears. 
The problem of water-logging was reported from 65 areas in the Capital thus washing away all the tall claims made by the civic agencies. Though, out of these, 31 are new areas from where water-logging was reported.
However, according to Mr Anil Shukla, Additional Commissioner of Police, traffic, this time the number of areas are less from where the problem was reported. "The department had written a letter in February well before the onset of the monsoons, providing the civic agencies a list of 157 roads and points in the capital which are vulnerable to water-logging but the situation was almost the same," stated Mr Shukla.
Further, the same reminder was sent in May but the problem of water-logging continued and the same was reported from all those major roads identified by traffic police. "The civic bodies are well aware of the roads that need to be repaired and resurfaced. It’s not that they need Traffic Police  report and letters to know about the vulnerable points. All the agencies have their own control rooms and they are very much aware of these points," he added.
Meanwhile, of 157 vulnerable points identified by the traffic police, 142 were under the PWD (Public Works Department) and remaining were under the municipal corporations and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
During last spell of rain in the capital on June 15, when flash flood had hit Uttarakhand, the traffic police also identified new areas from where water-logging was reported. "During that time also, 50 new areas had witnessed the water-logging on June 15 rain and the list has been sent to all the civic agencies to resolve the problem," added Mr Shukla.
In the first week of June, PWD, in reply to a letter by traffic police had informed that the capital would not witness any water-logging during the monsoon, added Mr Shukla.