Delhi High Court Wednesday directed the capital’s civic agencies to file a status report about steps taken to desilt drains and prevent water-logging during monsoon.
A division bench of Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice Vipin Sanghi said that the three municipal corporations and “the NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council) are directed to file a status report within 15 days after taking steps to desilt the drains so that the water-logging does not take place”.
The court posted the matter for Sep 5 for further hearing and asked the civic agencies to ensure that the silt removed from drains was taken away quickly.
The directions of the court came on a petition filed by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi which sought an end to the problem of water-logging.
The court allowed advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal to become a co-petitioner in the public interest litigation.
Bansal accused the civic agencies of doing “precious little” to prevent water-logging.
In his petition, he said that the municipal corporations and the Delhi government’s public works department had done nothing significant after 1998 to properly desilt drains, which was causing water-logging on roads.
He filed a list of 41 water logging-prone areas in the national capital.