Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Devender Yadav on Thursday said that the rain has exposed the claims of the Chief Minister Rekha Gupta-led government regarding preparedness against waterlogging.
He said that long before the monsoon, the Congress had cautioned that the BJP government was ill-prepared to tackle flooding and waterlogging, alleging that little had been done to prevent the accumulation of rainwater on the streets.
Yadav said the heavy rain on Wednesday submerged most of the roads and underpasses in the national capital, exposing PWD minister Parvesh Verma’s claim that desilting of drains and sewers had been completed, and stormwater drains were ready to absorb the rainwater.
He demanded that the third-party audit report on the desilting work carried out by both the previous and present governments be made public, so that people know the truth about what was actually done.
Yadav said that it seems only the government has changed in Delhi, not the corruption, nor the contractors or officials who continue to call the shots.
Yadav said the sad part was that despite extending the deadline for completing desilting work multiple times, the PWD failed to do its job effectively. Even where desilting was done, the muck was not removed and flowed back into the drains when pre-monsoon rain lashed the capital last month.
He said what happened simply defeated the very purpose of cleaning the drains — something the Delhi Congress had repeatedly pointed out, but to no effect.
The DPCC chief said the erstwhile Arvind Kejriwal government allowed the drains, sewers, and stormwater drains to remain choked with filth, as no desilting work had been done for over 11 years — even though, he alleged, Kejriwal looted taxpayers’ money for desilting work that was never carried out.
He accused the BJP government of continuing the corrupt practices of the previous Kejriwal regime, betraying the people of Delhi who had elected the saffron party to power in the hope of good governance.
Yadav said the previous Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government had prepared a Drainage Master Plan in association with IIT Delhi, but it was not implemented by the AAP government, resulting in the present crisis.