Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Wednesday responded to AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj’s remarks on waterlogging, stating that following the election defeat, Bharadwaj is unable to acknowledge the BJP government’s effective arrangements for the swift drainage of rainwater and is resorting to baseless statements out of political frustration.
Sachdeva added that while demanding an audit of drain and sewer cleaning, Bharadwaj conveniently overlooked the fact that the Delhi High Court had already ordered a desilting audit on 8 April 2024.
This order, he said, came in response to a petition filed in 2018 regarding alleged desilting scams during the Kejriwal government’s tenure.
He noted that according to the court’s order, the then Kejriwal government was required to conduct a third-party audit of desilting claims made by various departments and make the report public by 30 June 2024, a directive the government failed to comply with.
Sachdeva emphasized that Delhi witnessed the loss of nearly 40 innocent lives in 2024 due to waterlogging, and even after the court’s directive, the AAP government did not conduct the mandated audit.
He alleged that this failure clearly indicates the Kejriwal government’s involvement in a long-standing scam under the pretext of drain desilting over the past ten years.
Sachdeva further said that Bharadwaj, being a former minister in that very government, must answer why the audit report was not made public by the 30 June 2024 deadline, despite the court’s clear instructions.