Ready to face monsoon test, say traffic police

With its traffic signals serviced and enough personnel on the roads to ensure smooth traffic flow, the Delhi Traffic Police claims it is geared up to face the monsoon challenge.

Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) Satyendra Garg said they had serviced all the traffic signals in the capital to ensure the lights do not black out with the rains.

“We have already serviced all the traffic signals. We are also closely liaising with the Delhi civic authorities to ensure that issues like water-logging due to rains are resolved at the earliest,” Garg said in an event.

Asked about traffic snarls that inevitably occurred during rains, Garg said: “Even in case there is a traffic snarl due to rains, we will ensure that there are adequate traffic policemen to man the situation and ensure smooth traffic movement in the rain-hit areas.”

Garg claimed that the traffic police is often the fastest to respond to rain-related incidents such as fallen trees, and has disaster management vehicles on the ready to address such issues.

Waterlogging woes: HC seeks report on desilting

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked civic agencies, the trifurcated MCD and the NDMC to file a report giving details about steps taken to desilt drains to avoid waterlogging during monsoon in the Capital, reports PTI.

“The New Delhi Municipal Council and other civic agencies are directed to file a status report within 15 days after taking steps to desilt drains so that waterlogging does not happen,” said a bench of justices S K Kaul and Vipin Sanghi.

The court asked the civic agencies to ensure that “desilted material are removed from the sites.” It fixed the hearing on the matter to September 5.

The court’s directions came during the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi, seeking steps to end the problem of waterlogging in the Capital.

The bench also allowed Gaurav Bansal, an advocate, to get himself impleaded as a co-petitioner to the PIL filed by the NGO. In his petition, Bansal accused the civic agencies of doing “little” to prevent the recurrent malady before monsoon.

The MCD and PWD have done nothing significant after 1998 to desilt drains properly. This has been causing waterlogging on major roads even after slight rain, the petition claimed.

The PIL mentioned a list of 41 waterlogging-prone areas in Delhi. Referring to a response received under the Right to Information Act, the petition said affected areas included Ashram Chowk and South Extension Part-1.