AAP minister Saurabh Bhardwaj alleges Haryana Govt for Delhi floods
Aug 18, 2023
New Delhi [India], August 18 : Delhi water minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on Friday alleged that Haryana Government's actions caused the recent flood in the national capital after the Yamuna River overflowed in the national capital.
The AAP minister was responding to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena's letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in which he highlighted the "lapses" on the part of the city government that caused the flood.
Besides highlighting the alleged action on the part of the Haryana government, which he claimed caused the flood, the minister alleged that an "innovative method" directed by the LG called ‘partial gravitational desilting’ of drains caused huge quantities of silt to be deposited in the Yamuna riverbed".
"These projects of several crores were unscientific and illegal and were not approved by the Minster. Various projects for desilting and cleaning of drain/river beds were being executed under the direction of Hon’ble LG without sharing any details with the Minister & elected Govt of Delhi," Saurabh Bhardwaj said in his response to the LG's letter.
The Delhi minister said that LG had ignored that the Haryana government has already accepted that their engineers did not maintain the ITO barrage and have suspended their Chief Engineer.
The minister further alleged that the Head of the Department of Irrigation and Flood Control Department was hiding the fact from the Government that ITO barrage gates were jammed.
The minister said in his response letter to the LG that he would be interested to see if LG would initiate any action against the officer.
Haryana Government at Hathnikund Barrage sent huge quantities of water towards Delhi while keeping the Eastern Yamuna canal dry, just to save UP from flooding, the Minister alleged.
