HC seeks status on drains desilting within 15 days

The court also said the civic agencies should ensure completion of desilting work before full onset of monsoon. It directed them to ensure that the desilted material were removed from the roadside. The matter has been fixed for hearing to September 5.

The court’s directions came during the hearing of a PIL filed by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi seeking steps to end the problem of water-logging in the Capital.

The bench also allowed Gaurav Bansal,an advocate,to get himself impleaded as a co-petitioner in the case.

Bansal,in his petition,had accused the civic agencies of doing precious little to prevent the recurrent malady before the monsoon. The MCD and the PWD have done nothing significant after 1998 to desilt drains,which was causing water-logging on major roads even after a drizzle,the petition claimed. It also gave a list of 41 water logging-prone areas here.

Referring to a response received under the RTI,the petition said affected areas included Ashram Chowk,South Extension Part-I,DPS Road,Mathura Road,ISBT Kashmere Gate,RTR Marg near Moti Bagh flyover,Siri Fort Road,Dhaula Kuan underpass,and underpasses around Dwarka.