Anarchy in Delhi: Households buy bottled water & Netas pass the buck
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, July 14: Several areas in the national capital went without water supply. Even if water supply was provided for a few minutes as part of rationing, there wasn’t enough pressure to fill overhead tanks even on the first floors.
Reports said that two children were drowned to death in the North-western parts of Delhi, while several pockets remained under water. Leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought tp pass the buck, to the Haryana government for releasing water from Hathni Kund and also to the lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena for not acting fast enough to call the team of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF).
“We have been buying bottle water for the fast few days from the market for the household needs. There has been no water supply. While there was water supply briefly, it was just for a few minutes and without enough pressure to fill even the 500-litre overhead tank,” said A. K. Singh, a resident in New Delhi area, within one km range of Parliament.
Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with his Cabinet colleagues Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj along with Delhi Lt. Governor came before the media and they nearly sparred over taking the accountability. Bhardwaj let the charge from the AAP to blame the bureaucrats for not calling the NDRF team in time. He claimed to have written to the Delhi Chief Secretary in the “WhatsApp group” for NDRF team, claiming that water will eneter the houses in the national capital. Bureaucrats are under the command of the Delhi LG as per the AAP leaders.
Saxena sought to steer away from the public spectacle in spate with the AAP leaders, saying that he too could say many a things, but he wouldn’t. Kejriwal claimed that a disruption in the regulator brought sewerage water in the ITO areas, which also led to the flooding of Raj Ghat.
Delhi will host the G20 Summit in September, while the city has hit the international headlines for flooding as if the national capital was some rural backyard of a state. While the people are reeling under water shortage, they are also bracing for the water borne diseases, with anti-mosquito repellants disappearing from the shelves.
Even crematoriums were shut down in the national capital. Nigam Bodh Ghat, the biggest crematorium of the national capital, was shut down due to flooding. The private offices have shifted to the work from home mode.
While the AAP is in power in the city and also the municipal corporation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has stakes in the affairs of the national capital through the office of the Lt. Governor. The sound bytes suggest that both the AAP and the BJP want to escape the fury of the people by blaming each other.
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