Drained of patience,HC orders cleaning of drains within a week

Irked by waterlogged roads and the blame game among various civic agencies,the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed all agencies to clean stormwater drains on a war footing within one week.

After counsels for the various civic bodies informed the court that multiplicity of agencies was responsible for the waterlogging mess,the bench of Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmad and Justice Vibhu Bakhru asked the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC),the three corporations,the PWD and the Delhi Jal Board to ensure the drains in their respective jurisdictions are cleaned at the earliest.

The advocates of the three corporations and the NDMC claimed the desilting work could not be carried out as all major drains were under the PWD.

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The court also pulled up the civic agencies for the waterlogging in VIP areas after the heavy rain on Saturday. Do you know that the residences of ministers and high court judges were flooded? There was water in drawing rooms, Justice Ahmad said.

The NDMC advocate told court that the drains in VIP areas empty into the main MCD nallahs. The VIP areas are flooded because the water is pushed back as the main nallahs have not been cleaned. The court fixed responsibility on specific agencies,according to the area affected.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Nyaybhoomi in 2011,through which the court has been monitoring the issue of maintenance of roads and waterlogging in the city.

The court also issued directions to the PWD to file a fresh status report on desilting after it was found that the report submitted by the committee contained errors. The report shows photographs of areas before and after desilting. These are the same picture rotated 180 degrees. This is a mockery of the court, Ahmad said.

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