Barely 18 days before the official arrival of the monsoon in the city the , Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) the civic agency responsible for de-silting the drains so that roads don’t get waterlogged after rains has barely managed to clean 13 per cent of a total 1,485 drains in the Capital. This after the civic body this year increased the budget for de-silting drains to Rs 37.5 crore from Rs 25 crore.

The ineptness of MCD can also be gauged from the fact that a year after it placed orders to procure the muchhyped super sucker machines a special machine, which desilts drains at a much higher speed it is yet to get its delivery .

MCD officials now say the two super sucker machines, which will cost the civic body Rs 10 crore will be delivered by June end after the monsoon arrives. “There were some technical problems that resulted in the delay. But the company has assured us that the machines will be delivered by end of June,” said Vijendra Gupta, Chairman of the MCD’s Standing Committee.

Total number of drains 1,485
Number cleaned 197
Number yet to be cleaned 1,287
Budget allocated 37.5 Cr

Excerpt taken from HT epaper.