Claims on desilting drown with Delhi

NEW DELHI: The first spell of monsoon rain brought misery to the people of Delhi and NCR which saw massive waterlogging, proving that claims by various agencies of desilting the drains have remained on paper.
Due to the ongoing tussle between the elected dispensation and the bureaucracy, supervision over agencies involved in cleaning the drains seemed to be missing and the work that should have been completed by June 15 fell abysmally short.
The incidents of vehicles submerging in rainwater, streets clogged and traffic struggling to move have belied MCD's claims that it was prepared for the rains and that most drains had been desilted.
In a meeting held on June 20 to take stock of monsoon preparedness last week, various agencies gave reports of drains they had managed to clean till that date. Of the 1,037 drains along its 1,400-km road network, the Public Works Department had managed to complete the cleaning of 85% till last week. Of the 22 major drains that channel water to the Yamuna, barely 50% had been cleaned till last week and at locations 70% cleaning had been registered.
Till June 20, MCD had completed 92% of the desilting work in drains that were more than four feet deep, according to mayor Shelly Oberoi. NDMC had barely managed to complete 70% of the work.
Delhi urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had on June 11 sought a report from the Delhi chief secretary on the desilting work, which led to a war of words between the two. In a note to the chief secretary on June 13, Bharadwaj said he had sought an exhaustive list of all desilted drains from various agencies on June 11 but failed to get an update even after two days.
The chief secretary, however, said he had already informed the minister on June 5 that the issue of waterlogging had been actively considered by Delhi High Court. He added that all departments concerned were regularly submitting action-taken reports to the integrated drain management cell, which was forwarding those reports to the court. The chief secretary also mentioned that a huge amount of silt was collected from the drains, which was nearly one-sixth of the legacy waste at the Ghazipur landfill site. A place was needed for dumping the silt and the official sought guidance from the elected dispensation.
A source said after multiple follow-ups with the chief secretary, the minister on June 20 got the list of drains that were claimed to have been desilted. When the minister got some of them cross-checked in his own constituency on June 22 and 23, it was found that most were not cleaned.
"During the emergency meeting today (Friday), the urban development minister showed photographs of those drains, which the PWD in its report had claimed to have cleaned but were still full of silt. He pulled up the PWD secretary because something similar had happened last year too and asked the chief secretary to act on the matter. The minister mentioned that it was the job of the contractors to desilt drains and the department just had to supervise. If that does not happen and the completion certificate is given, then it is simply an act of corruption," the source said.