Delhi Minister Atishi writes to Chief Secretary to address issue of overflowing sewers
Aug 22, 2024
New Delhi [India], August 22 : Delhi Minister Atishi wrote a letter to Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar on Thursday to address the issue of overflowing sewers in Delhi.
Upon visiting the affected areas of Uttam Nagar, Atishi directed the Chief Secretary to ensure adequate deployment of manpower and machinery in every part of the city to ensure there are no sewer overflows causing inconvenience to the people of Delhi.
In her letter, Atishi wrote that until last year, 73 contractual manpower and 14 sewing machines were deployed for the maintenance of sewer and water pipelines, which was reduced to 18 people and 7 machines this year.
Additionally, she wrote that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is a critical civic utility and that the national capital would come to a standstill if DJB failed to do its work properly, further adding that files keep closing in DJB because of the funds that cannot go on.
She further added that the national capital has turned into a living hell because of an artificial financial crisis that has been created in DJB, considering that only 400 crores have been released to DJB so far.
Atishi, in her letter, directed the Chief Secretary to ensure enough funds are released to the DJB in the next 48 hours from the budget allocated for them. She further added that strong action needs to be taken against all the officers responsible for creating the artificial fund crisis that has brought Delhi to the verge of a major public health crisis. 
Earlier on Tuesday, Atishi had written a letter to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the issue of severe waterlogging under the Zakhira underpass in Delhi.
In her letter, Atishi wrote, "I would like to draw your kind attention to the serious issue of waterlogging under Zahira underpass in Delhi. I have been informed that the main cause of this waterlogging is due to non-channelization of water coming from the area belonging to Indian Railways as there is no drain culvert to channelize the water to nearby MCD drain/Najafgarh drain."
