Minister,civic body lock horns as Cong-BJP spat worsens

A press release from PWD on Wednesday claimed that “their (corporation’s) reluctance in allowing dumping of silt taken out by PWD in their landfill sites may result in the outbreak of an epidemic,causing loss of lives of poor and under-privileged people who are living in JJ clusters and rehabilitation colonies.’’

“The accumulation of silt from drains on roads may attract mosquitoes,which can lead to a break-out of diseases like dengue,malaria and other air-borne diseases,’’ the release had further stated.

The PWD minister,however,later retracted the statement saying that this was not the case.

“An amount of Rs 16.83 crore was paid to contractors for desilting drains and Rs 3 crore was paid to corporations for dumping this silt in their landfill sites. But the corporations did not let us use their landfill sites in South Delhi saying that it was meant only for corporation’s works. Eventually,we had to tie up with private contractors and dump the silt in empty plots,’’ Chauhan said,adding that for now,the situation was under control and would not lead to the outbreak of an epidemic.

South Municipal Corporation has denied these charges. “No money was given to us. Why should we remove the silt for PWD? That is the PWD’s job,’’ Standing committee chairman,South corporation,Rajesh Gehlot said.

South Mayor Sarita Choudhury and Commissioner Manish Gupta also seconded Gehlot’s view. The PWD claimed that it had taken up the work of desilting drains as a challenge and that the work has been accomplished despite the fact that it had only taken over roads from the MCD in 2012. “The city government is sincere and serious in taking up public interest projects whereas the corporations have proved to be lethargic. Nothing is moving in the colonies. No development work is being taken up in these areas,’’ Chauhan said.