North Delhi mayor Preety Agarwal and the commissioner of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, P.K. Gupta, on Tuesday inspected areas in their jurisdiction for monsoon preparedness.
Ms. Agarwal said that the Public Works Department (PWD) under the Delhi government is not prepared for the monsoon, and because of their apathy Delhiites are likely to suffer.
“We are making all the efforts to minimise waterlogging in our areas, but many of the drains under the PWD are yet to be desilted,” she said.
Ms. Agarwal said that during an inspection of the civic body’s drain near Britannia Chowk, adjacent to Ring Road, it was found that a pipeline of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was leaking near a municipal drain.
The Mayor directed the officials to write a letter to DJB about the leaking pipeline. She also directed the officials of sanitation department to improve the cleanliness level.
Ms. Agarwal said that similar deficiencies were found in Wazirabad, Jehangirpuri, and Azadpur.
“The silt from the bigger drains flow into the smaller ones and messes with the work that we have done. We will be writing to the government to cooperate with us for the people of Delhi,” she said.
‘Release funds’
PTI adds: A delegation of north municipal corporation, led by Ms. Agarwal, met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday and sought release of the "amount pending" to the cash-strapped civic body under the Fourth Delhi State Finance Commission, besides discussing the issue of desilting.
"Since 2012-13, ₹1,616 crore is due from the Delhi government, which needs to be released immediately as the corporation is facing a financial crunch," she said.
"Even funds which is due to the corporation as per the Third Delhi Finance Commission, have not been fully released," Ms. Agarwal claimed.
The other members of the delegation were Deputy Mayor Vijay Bhagat and coucillors Jayender Dabas, Jai Prakash and Tilak Raj Kataria.
