DMs to carry out ‘ground truthing’ of desilted drains

◗ AS DELHI received its first monsoon showers on Thursday, several areas, including the newly-inaugurated Pragati Maidan tunnel witnessed waterlogging leading to massive traffic snarls

The district magistrates of 11 revenue districts in the national capital have been asked to carry out “ground truthing” of desilting of drains carried out by the Department of Flood and Irrigation and other local bodies.

During a senior officers’ meeting on June 24, directions were also issued to the revenue department to expedite implementation of e-Court project along with faceless transactions in sub-registrar offices.

The directions read: “All district magistrates personally take ground truthing of desilting of work of drains carried out by the Department of Flood and Irrigation and Local Bodies. The ground truthing work shall be done by the respective district magistrate personally and no delegation in this regard is allowed.”

The directive said the “district magistrate can also push water in the drain in case there is a doubt regarding desilting of drain by the concerned authorities”, and that the work should be carried out by next week.

The order said that during the meeting it was also pointed out that 31 parameters under Ease of Doing Business were yet to be implemented by the revenue department. “These parameters should be implemented by October 31, 2022,” the order said.

As Delhi received its first monsoon showers on Thursday, several areas, including the newly-inaugurated Pragati Maidan tunnel, ITO, Ring Road, the Barapullah corridor, the Delhi-Meerut expressway and Sarai Kale Khan, witnessed waterlogging leading to massive traffic snarls.

The officials concerned were also asked to submit a brief indicating the current status of these parameters and likely completion date of their implementation within one week.