LG, CM tell Delhi authorities to be rain-ready

The one-on-one meeting between lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal went on for more than an hour, officials in the LG office said.

New Delhi: Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday together held two back-to-back high-level meetings to review the city’s monsoon preparedness and discuss ways to improve coordination between departments and agencies of the Delhi government.

(From left), Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, LG Vinai Kumar Saxena, and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. (HT Photo)

Wednesday’s meetings were also the first official meetings between Saxena and Kejriwal ever since the LG assumed office on May 26. A day later, on May 27, Kejriwal went to meet Saxena where they briefly discussed issues, but it was more of a courtesy call to welcome Saxena.

The meeting with the LG’s and Kejriwal on better cooperation between departments took place in the backdrop of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) repeatedly accusing Saxena of overstepping his jurisdiction as he has been reviewing projects of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which is under the direct control of the elected government. The LG, on the other hand, has direct control over police, land, law and order, and services.

The one-on-one meeting between Saxena and Kejriwal went on for more than an hour, officials in the LG office said.

After this, the LG chaired a monsoon preparedness meeting in his office, which was attended by Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and a battery of top officials from all key departments such as the chief secretary, the MCD special officer and others.

The meeting is important since Delhi witnesses rampant waterlogging each year due to an archaic drainage system and multiplicity of authorities that manage roads and drains in the Capital.

Both the LG and the CM issued a slew of directions on Wednesday to devise comprehensive long-term measures to deal with waterlogging and overflowing drains. The LG, according to officials in his office, said that working on a “crisis management mode”, which he said has been happening till now, will not be accepted.

“The LG directed officials to simultaneously start the exercise of creating sink holes of 6-8 inches diameter, lined with perforated pipes and covered suitably at the sites prone to waterlogging. He said this should be done along roads, drains and DJB sewer lines that are prone to flooding. The water should be instantly absorbed and used to recharge the ground water at such locations. The CM agreed to the idea and directed officials to comply with it,” read a statement issued by Raj Niwas on Wednesday evening.

The Public Works Department (PWD) has completed at least 80% of the desilting work and the remaining work will be completed by June 15, a senior PWD official who attended the meeting said. He added that localised action plans and interventions have been lined up for critical waterlogging locations The department will also set up a central control room from where 10 critical waterlogging sites in Delhi will be monitored 24x7 through CCTV cameras. A total of 2,064 km of stormwater drains comes under PWD.

Expressing concern that waterlogging has almost become and annual phenomenon during a downpour in Delhi, the LG issued directions that the entire process of the lifting debris after cleaning drains, transporting it and unloading it at designated sites should be videographed, photographed and uploaded on the concerned agency’s website as proof, and to make the system more transparent to the people of Delhi.

On May 30, three people died as heavy rains and thunderstorm lashed the city resulting in waterlogging at multiple locations.

“For the purpose of de-silting of drains it was directed that pressurised hosing be undertaken so as to forcefully move the silt downstream and not letting it settle down. Similarly, to ensure that caving of roads and pathways does not take place during rainy season, it was directed that proper compaction be done after completion of all civil works. In an important move, officials were directed to construct concrete cemented roads at sites that were prone to waterlogging and flooding, instead of the prevalent practice of laying bitumen,” the L-G’s office said.

As for a long-term to tackle the problem, the LG and the CM agreed upon a comprehensive study to find ways through which excess water could be transported to natural/artificial pits, depressions and low lying areas in the city to store it. The LG and CM also directed officials to come up with a time-bound plan for laying alternate pipelines for storm water drainage.

They instructed that the drainage master plan that has been pending for years should be expeditiously finalised with the help of experts and domain specific agencies.