Drained of patience,HC seeks report on drains

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the citys civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains in order to prevent the problem of water-logging during monsoon.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the citys civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains in order to prevent the problem of water-logging during monsoon. The court also asked the three civic corporations and the New Delhi Municipal Council to place on record the maps relating to drainage system in the city by next week.

Drains have to be cleaned. There are no short-term measures to stop water-logging in the city. If you dont know the number of drains in the area,how will you clean them, a division bench of justices S K Kaul and Vipin Sanghi asked after MCD failed to file the status report. The bench observed that in order to deal with the problem of water-logging,the civic agencies should at least know where the drains are located,including those in colonies.

Though the civic body claimed that long-term plans were in place,in accordance with Master Plan 2021,to solve the problem the bench said the citizens of Delhi could not be made to wait endlessly.

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Year after year,the problem of water-logging occurs. You cannot ask citizens to wait for implementation of your long-term plans, the court said and asked the authorities to bring the records of road maps to court by August 28.

The High Court had on July 11 directed officials to take steps to end the problem of water-logging in the Capital in 15 days. The courts directions had come while hearing two PILs,filed by the NGO Nyaya Bhoomi and Gaurav Bansal,a lawyer,seeking steps to address the issue of water-logging.

One of the petitions had claimed that the MCD and the Public Works Department (PWD) had done nothing significant after 1998 to desilt drains and this was causing water-logging on major roads even after a drizzle.

Giving a list of 41 waterlogged-prone areas,the petition referred to a response received under an RTI,and said the affected areas included Ashram Chowk,South Extension Part-I,Mathura Road,ISBT Kashmere Gate,RTR Marg near Moti Bagh flyover,Siri Fort Road,Dhaula Kuan underpass and underpasses around Dwarka.

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Drained of patience,HC seeks report on drains

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the citys civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains in order to prevent the problem of water-logging during monsoon.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the citys civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains in order to prevent the problem of water-logging during monsoon.