Drain de-silting deadline extended by 15 days

NEW DELHI: As monsoon approaches the Capital, the Delhi government’s Public Works Department (PWD) has pushed back the the deadline for de-silting drains of the city from June 15 to June 30.

The extension comes in the wake of ongoing standoff between chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and three of his cabinet colleagues who are staging a sit-in protest at lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal’s office. The chief minister and his ministers have alleged that IAS officers posted in the government are on a ‘strike’.

The India Meteorological Department officials have said that monsoon would hit the city around June 29, but prior to this pre-monsoon showers could result in water logging on city roads.

Every year, before monsoon hits the city, a meeting between the state PWD minister, senior bureaucrats from the Delhi government and municipal bodies take place to chalk out a plan for de-silting drains.

The government had earlier planned to finish all monsoonrelated work by June 15. “However, some work could not be completed on time as IAS officers are on a strike. A fresh deadline has been set and all work will be completed by June 30,” said a Delhi government spokesperson said.

As per the latest PWD report, of the 1,034 roads in its jurisdiction, 25% de-silting of drains has been completed on 666 roads, 50% on 135 roads and 75% on 100 roads. Around 33 roads have been completely de-silted.

The three civic agencies — north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations — are also running behind schedule and have completed only 85%, 87% and 40% de-silting work, respectively, so far.

While the north and south corporations will take at least a week’s time to finish the remaining task, the east corporation officials said work can’t be completed before June 30.

REASON FOR DELAY IN EAST DELHI

In the absence of an earmarked site for dumping silt, all the civic authorities, including PWD and Irrigation and Flood Control Department, were going slow with the work.

Dumping was stopped at Ghazipur landfill in September 2017 after a portion of the landfill collapsed, resulting in death of two persons.

“It was only after the Delhi Development Authority allocated land in Singhu (near Narela border) last month, work for transporting silt started in June,” said senior EDMC official.

“However, the new site is 30 kilometres from east Delhi and this has increased our cost of transportation by three times. This has also impacted the speed of work,” said the EDMC official.

In east Delhi, the civic body has 223 drains, the PWD has 312 drains and the irrigation and flood control department has 11 big drains.

“Of them, we have completed de-silting of 40% drains while the PWD and the I&FC department have covered 25% drains,” the official said.