NDMC meeting adjourned amid ruckus over Delhi govt's flood 'mismanagement'

A New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday adjourned amid ruckus and sloganeering against the AAP chief over his government's mismanagement during recent rains and flood situation in the city.

Council members cornered Kejriwal over several issues including incidents related to recent rains and flood situations in the national capital.

NDMC Vice Chairman Satish Upadhyay on Wednesday alleged that the council meeting convened at the council room, got adjourned after questions were raised regarding the recent rains and flood situation in the New Delhi area.

"Today's meeting was postponed by Kejriwal. If he wanted, the meeting could have been held again after a while but he did not want to. The council members have a legitimate right to demand answers and accountability from the chief minister for the betterment of the city and its residents, which they did today," he said.

Upadhyay informed that the next meeting of the Council will be held on Thursday

"During the council meeting, questions were asked to Delhi CM on many important issues including non-calling of the Apex, timely de-silting, overflow of sewers in MCD areas," Upadhyay said.

Members raised concerns over the delay in holding the Apex meeting, which played a significant role in worsening the rain and flood situation across Delhi as well as the New Delhi area.

"Timely desilting of drainage systems was not done, which increased the problems of floods in various areas of NDMC. Overflow of sewers in MCD areas resulted in backwater flooding in the New Delhi area, causing further hardship to the residents of the New Delhi area," the vice chairman noted.

VIP areas like Connaught Place, Bharti Nagar, Golf Link, and Lodhi Road were also highly affected due to Kejriwal government's mismanagement, Upadhyay claimed.

He said that here we are only talking about the problems caused by the recent rains and floods in the New Delhi area. But their members are treating the meeting of the Council like the questions to be raised in the Parliament.

The vice chairman claimed that Kejriwal uses abusive language for the Prime Minister and that he is forging alliances with corrupt party/leaders like Congress, RJD and we will not allow such dirty politics to happen in New Delhi Municipal Council.

On the other hand, AAP claimed that BJP members led by Kuldeep Chahal created a ruckus during the meeting and did not let even a single agenda to be discussed. So, Kejriwal had to adjourn the meeting.

The only objective of BJP members is to insult the chief minister. However, in the process, they wasted precious time of the Council and stalled so many important projects of NDMC, the party said.

The BJP members converted the NDMC meeting into a political battleground. It is very unfortunate that BJP does not have any interest in the welfare of people living in the NDMC area. There were many important items on the agenda for today's meeting. But BJP members raised issues of women atrocities in Rajasthan, surgical strikes, tukde gang etc. Are these issues related to the welfare of the people of NDMC? No. This was cheap and dirty politics, AAP said in a statement.