Taking a dig at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the extensive waterlogging in Delhi after heavy rains on Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tajinder Bagga went “rafting” on an inundated road and thanked him for making it possible in “every nook and corner” of the city.
In a video posted on Twitter, the national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha asked Mr. Kejriwal to have boards put up across Delhi on the achievement.
Record rains lashed many parts of Delhi on Saturday, causing waterlogging that affected operations at the Delhi airport, disrupted traffic on key roads, and left passengers trapped in vehicles in flooded underpasses. The city recorded 117.9 mm of rainfall from 5.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.
In the video, Mr. Bagga is seen sitting in a rafting boat on a submerged road in northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura area. Cars, motorcycles and buses are seen wading through the muddy water on the road.
He said in the video, “This season, I really wanted to go to Rishikesh for rafting but I could not due to the coronavirus [pandemic] and repeated lockdowns. I want to thank Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal- ji as he has made arrangements for rafting in every nook and corner of Delhi.”
“I urge Arvind Kejriwal- ji to put up boards about this across Delhi as he always does,” Mr. Bagga said.
Many Delhiites shared pictures and videos on social media, showing waterlogging in different parts of the city. In another video uploaded on Twitter, children are seen swimming on a heavily waterlogged road near the MCD Civic Centre.
According to the authorities, 262 complaints of waterlogging were received by the Public Works Department and civic agencies till Saturday afternoon (1.30 p.m.).
Last month, Mr. Kejriwal had chaired a meeting to review Delhi’s drainage plan and said that a “world-class” drainage system would be developed for the city to resolve the issue of waterlogging. The CM had said that the necessary changes suggested by IIT-Delhi, would make the city’s drainage system “foolproof”.
