With a war of words waging on between bureaucrats and ministers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, officials in the office of Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena said a meeting of the Apex Committee on flood preparation, headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has not been held in the last two years. The Delhi government, however, said that a meeting to discuss preparations was held in May itself and was attended by representatives of different departments. The Apex Committee comprises all ministers, Delhi Parliamentarians, four MLAs, the Chief Secretary, representatives from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), GOC-Indian Army, and members of the Central Water Commission (CWC). “The CM did not call the meeting despite the revenue department asking that a meeting be held in June. The file that was routed to the CM via Revenue minister Atishi was returned to her with the instructions to her to convene a meeting,” an official said. Officials said the Divisional Commissioner was asked to hold a short meeting in her conference room with the principal secretary (irrigation and flood control), District Magistrate (East) and other officials. “The Chief Secretary, police commissioner, MCD commissioner and CEO of Delhi Jal Board were not part of the meeting. A meeting took place on July 6 where main stakeholders were not present,” the official quoted above said. The Apex Committee looks at projections and also ensures coordination between departments. The AAP government, however, stated that it had started preparing for the floods in May itself. “On May 9, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj and PWD Minister Atishi jointly chaired a meeting where all departments including PWD, MCD, I&FC, DJB, DDA & NDMC were present and preparations for floods and water logging were reviewed. After that, regular interdepartmental meetings have been happening to iron out any issues regarding floods and water logging. The Chief Minister has been monitoring the situation himself as well. The Flood Control Order was issued as per the due process, keeping Delhi's historical data in mind,” the Delhi government said in a statement. On Saturday, divisional commissioner Ashwani Kumar hit out at Delhi government ministers who had alleged that their pleas to officers to involve the engineering teams of the NDRF and the Army in flood operations fell on deaf ears. The messages of the ministers were responded to, Kumar said in a press conference.
