AAP government failed to tackle waterlogging; Delhi turned into a slum: BJP

New Delhi: With parts of Delhi again witnessing severe waterlogging following a spell of heavy rainfall on Tuesday, the BJP slammed the AAP government and its agencies, accusing them of turning the city into a "slum".

The Aam Aadmi Party, in turn, blamed the bureaucrats for the waterlogging woes, saying they did not comply with its minister's direction to provide desilting reports, and hit out at Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena for not taking action against the officers who did not get drains cleaned.

It said much before the Monsoon arrived in Delhi, the Urban Development  Minister, Saurabh Bharadwaj, had directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to provide the report on the desilting of drains by various agencies, including the MCD, PWD, NDMC, DDA, Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

"However, instead of providing the desilting report, the Chief Secretary was busy making excuses," the party alleged.

It claimed that in a note, the LG office had accepted that drains were not desilted.

There was no response from the LG office to the allegations.

"The question for the LG is why the LG has not taken any action against the heads of department like PWD Principal Secretary, MCD Commissioner, DDA Vice-Chairman and NDMC chairperson for not doing desilting," AAP said.

It claimed that there has been large-scale corruption as the desilting contracts were issued yet the work has not been done "Instead of writing letters, the LG should suspend officers because they have been caught red-handed in corruption," AAP said.

The BJP said that the Arvind Kejriwal government's "failure" to address the waterlogging problem will be a major election issue.

"The Delhi government led by Aam Aadmi Party and its 60 MLAs have failed to tackle the problem of waterlogging, turning the entire city into a slum cluster," Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged.

He demanded the government identify perennial waterlogging spots in the city and depute marshalls to prevent people from going there during rains.

"In the upcoming Assembly elections, the Arvind Kejriwal government's failure to address the waterlogging problem in the rainy season and provide clean drinking water during summer will be the major issues," he said.

The people of Delhi are once again suffering due to the "negligence" of the Delhi government, said the Delhi BJP president, citing waterlogging at several places like Badarpur, ITO, Mundka, Chhatarpur, Sangam Vihar, Karkardooma, Vasant Kunj and Najafgarh.

"As Delhiites headed to work this morning, they were surrounded by water and the city came to a standstill until afternoon due to the rainfall," he claimed.

An autorickshaw driver narrowly escaped a fatal accident due to waterlogging at the Minto Bridge, and the Zakhira underpass too was waterlogged, he said.

"This is 100 per cent government negligence. The Delhi government is only interested in corruption and has no concern for the lives of the people. Why has the Delhi government become an enemy of its citizens?" he said.