After coaching centre deaths, claims, counter claims fly over drain desilting

Alleging that desilting of drains was carried out only on paper, Bharadwaj in a press conference Monday said the Chief Secretary ignored his directions to conduct a third-party audit of desilted drains. He said the coaching centre deaths was a result of this negligence.

“The CS, in writing, even said the minister cannot seek details of desilting citing Model Code of Conduct (in place during the Lok Sabha polls,” Bharadwaj alleged.
The Chief Secretary did not respond to a request for comment on Bharadwaj’s claim.

The minister also alleged Kumar misled the High Court about desilting of drains and waterlogging situation in the city. “… I would like to request the High Court to file a case of contempt of court against them, because they also submitted a false report… on cleaning of drains…,” he alleged, adding that he had complained about this to the Union Home Minister’s Office through a letter on June 14, 2024.

He also raised questions about the central government giving extensions to Kumar: “The Centre has given two extensions to Kumar… There are senior officers in line… but he was given extensions… He is doing nothing except ruining the city…”

Bharadwaj also alleged that he had been writing to Kumar and other department secretaries concerned since February for a meeting to chalk out a comprehensive plan for drainage management to avoid waterlogging in Delhi but neither they they respond nor did they attend the meeting.

“… I issued a call for a meeting on February 6 to the Chief Secretary, DDA Vice-Chairman, MCD Commissioner, DJB CEO, Principal Secretary PWD, Secretary I&FC, and others. The meeting was scheduled for February 13 but not even one IAS officer turned up. This is the seriousness of these officers…,” he alleged.

He claimed only executive engineers attended the meeting. Referring to the minutes of the meeting, he said, “What can an engineer-level officer do? What decision will he take? So I expressed displeasure over this.”

The Minister also alleged that he wrote to the Chief Secretary to take action and issue a show-cause notice against the officers who did not attend the meeting on February 23 but he did not take any action.

“Again on May 20, I wrote to the Chief Secretary on the importance of desilting and sought a progress report on work done by the department concerned, timeline, current status, and targeted date of completion… I did not receive any response from the CS on this either… I waited 15 days for his reply and wrote to him again seeking the report but there was no reply…,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

On June 5, the Minister alleged, he received an “absurd” reply from the Chief Secretary. “He said, at the onset, it is informed that the matter of waterlogging along with other issues in the NCT of Delhi is under active consideration of the High Court and that they submitted a presentation to the High Court…The CS did not even keep the elected government in the loop,” he alleged.