After rains, Monsoon blues; waterlogging in many areas

New Delhi, July 12: After the relief provided by rains, Delhiites get ready to face the Monsoon blues.

The heavy Monsoon rains that hit the capital this morning may have brought cheers to Delhiites but it also brought along the problem of waterlogging in several areas of the capital, belying the claims of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi of being full prepared for the monsoons.

Areas like the ITO and Jhandewalan in Central Delhi, Model Town in North Delhi and Shahdara in East Delhi reported severe waterlogging.

According to information available from the control room of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, set up to monitor complaints of flooding during the monsoon, about 100 to 150 reports of waterlogging were received from different parts of Delhi following the heavy rains that lashed the capital this morning.

And, as is the case every year, a majority of complaints of waterlogging were received from the ITO area while the Shahdara area in East Delhi and Jhandewalan in Central Delhi also had several reports of flooding.

Flooding and waterlogging caused major traffic jams, specially on the ITO flyover and the Jhandewalan roundabout.

The waterlogging, which weathermen say is largely a result of overflowing of drains, comes even as the MCD, the capital's main civic body, claims to have completed the bulk of the desilting of drains.

In fact, the MCD claims that more than 1100 drains in the Capital have already been cleaned and more than four lakh Metric tonnes of silt removed. However, the opposition BJP in the MCD has alleged that the ''tall claims'' made by the MCD of having completed a major part of the desilting process were only on paper.

Leader of the opposition in the MCD Subhash Arya alleges that notwithstanding claims by the corporation, a bulk of the desilting will still needed to be done.

''Out of the nearly 9 lakh Metric Tonnes of silt in various drains in Delhi, the MCD has till now removed only 4 lakh MT, which still leaves five lakh MT of silt to be removed,''Mr Arya said.

''Nearly 60 per cent of silt in drains in Delhi has not been removed even though the deadline for the same was June 30.

Further, the drains, which the MCD claims to have desilted, have still not been fully cleaned.'' At the same time, the MCD authorities say that desilting in six out of 12 zones of the capital has already been completed.

It said while the desilting process had been completed in 1108 out of 1296 drains, the rest is expected to be completed in the next few days.

The MCD has set up control rooms in all its 12 zones as well as a centralised control room in the ehad office to receive complaints of waterlogging.

UNI