VK Saxena blames AAP govt for Delhi flood
New Delhi, August 18
Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena on Friday blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for floods in the national capital last month.
The L-G — in a letter to Delhi CM Kejriwal — stated that there should be “zero tolerance” towards encroachments on the river bed and the floodplain in the future.
The L-G also suggested to the Delhi CM that an advanced flood management plan for Yamuna Bazar and other low-lying areas should be put in place.
Saxena advised that one department should exclusively be assigned with the responsibility for the Yamuna river. All other stakeholder departments should be put as adjuncts — tasked with respective responsibilities.
“Yamuna river in terms of width, depth and height should be ascertained, and sustainable de-silting and dredging, which is pending for the past 10 years, be undertaken at the earliest,” the L-G said in his letter.
The Delhi L-G said that it was not clearing the construction, demolition and other debris from sites that obstructed the free flow of the Yamuna.
As to the AAP government’s blame for the excessive release of water from Hathni Kund barrage in Haryana into the Yamuna leading to floods in Delhi, the L-G said, “The highest recorded discharge of 8.28 lakh cusecs from Hathni Kund was in 2019 that caused the level in Yamuna at the Old Railway Bridge (ORB) to touch the 206.6m mark. The discharge this year was only 3.59 lakh cusecs yet the Yamuna level reached the record level of 208.66m at the ORB.”
Responding to the L-G’s letter, Water Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj that the L-G had directed an innovative method called ‘partial gravitational de-silting’ of drains which caused huge quantities of silt to be deposited in Yamuna riverbed.
“These projects of several crores were unscientific and illegal and were not approved by the minister. The L-G ignored that the Haryana Government has already accepted that their engineers did not maintain the ITO barrage and have suspended their Chief Engineer,” said Bhardwaj.
