‘Not me’: MCD, DDA spar over who is in charge of drain where mother, son drowned
Cars crushed under debris after a wall of a school in Delhi collapsed after the heavy rain spell.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
A day after a woman and her eight-year-old son drowned in a drain after a heavy rain spell, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) traded charges over the incident, with each agency claiming that the responsibility of maintaining the drain lay with the other.
Tanuja and her three-year-old son Priyansh slipped and fell into a waterlogged drain near Khoda Colony in Ghazipur around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
While the civic body claimed that “the DDA has constructed the drain”, the urban body said, “The tragic incident happened in the area pertaining to MCD”.
The deaths also prompted a war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP. AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh said the deaths were not accidents but a “murder”. Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the incident highlighted how the city’s sewage and stormwater drainage systems “have completely collapsed”.
The Congress said Delhi Ministers should take emergency steps to prevent the recurrence of such incidents instead of “indulging in blame games”.
As per the statement issued by the DDA, the total length of the drain along the Khoda Colony is 1,350 metres. Out of this, 1,000 metres was handed over to the MCD a “considerable time ago”, it said. “The remaining 350 metres of the drain… is under the jurisdiction of the DDA,” stated the urban body.
On the other hand, Mayor Shelly Oberoi said, “As per sources, the drain belongs to the DDA. We will give orders to officials to investigate the matter and present a report.”
AAP held a protest against the Lieutenant-Governor, who is also the DDA Chairperson, near the site of the incident. “The DDA under the L-G is directly responsible for this incident,” said Mr. Singh.
Hitting back, Mr. Sachdeva said, “Not even a single truck of silt was disposed of by the Irrigation Department, the PWD, and the DJB. This indicates that no de-silting work has taken place.”
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