Most waterlogging spots fall under the purview of city govt'

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has written to the city government asking the latter to make adequate arrangements for the waterlogging prone spots pointed out by the traffic police as they do not fall under its jurisdiction.

“Of the total 162 spots identified by the traffic police, only two fall under the purview of the South Corporation. We wrote to the chief secretary of the Delhi government and marked a copy of the letter to secretary, Public Works department,” said Janakpuri councillor Ashish sood.

Even the North and East Corporations echoed similar views. “Most of the spots pointed out by the police fall under the jurisdiction of the city government,” said an official with the North Corporation.

Monsoon arrived in the national capital on late Sunday night and incidents of waterlogging were reported across the city on Monday.

“While Shastri Nagar under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation saw waterlogging, trees fell in Vivek Vihar, Geeta Colony and Seema Puri areas under the limits of the East Corporation. Incidents of building collapse were reported in New Usmanpur and Pandav Naga in the East Corporation,” said an official with East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation claimed to have made adequate arrangements to deal with waterlogging under its jurisdiction. “Some 10 portable pumps to suck water out of the drains will be deployed in every zone. In addition to these, 30 portable pumps, 11 mobile pumping units and two discharge units will be kept on standby. The employees concerned have been asked to act swiftly during rainy season,” said a senior official with the South Corporation.

Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation Shyam Sharma said that the civic agency has completed desilting of all the drains under its limits to avoid waterlogging during the monsoon season. “Two super suction units, two suction jetting machines and four suction machines were deployed to accelerate desilting exercise. As many as 616 beldars and 2,240 safai karmcharis were also deployed for this purpose. About 265 drains with over four feet width were desilted, their combined length is 180 km.”

“Apart from this, 18,194 drains with less than four feet width were also extensively cleaned. Various machines such as backhoe JCB loaders, wheeled excavators and tracked excavators were deployed for this purpose.”

Sharma added that the safai karmcharis and beldars would remain deployed during the rainy season to meet the challenge of waterlogging. “Round the clock emergency control rooms at the Civic Centre and in all four zonal buildings of the South Corporation will remain functional during monsoon season."