With advent of monsoon around the corner, Delhi Congress today hit out at the state government over its "poor" pre-monsoon preparedness, claiming only 18 per cent of drains have been de-silted and accused it of not being serious about tackling health issues which may surface later.
"Despite monsoon rains knocking at the door, only 18 per cent de-silting works have been carried out by PWD to prevent water-logging.
"This shows how serious the AAP government is in tackling water-logging during monsoon rains," a statement quoted Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee.
Mukherjee claimed that among the few areas where de-silting works have been satisfactory are Flag Staff Road in Civil Lines where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's official residence is located and Patparganj constituency represented by his deputy Manish Sisodia.
She noted that areas other than "these two places" however
saw no progress as far as de-silting works were concerned.
"Kejriwal has no time to spare except clashing with the Centre and is more concerned about Punjab. This is the reason he is spending crores of rupees of the tax payers' money for putting out advertisements in Punjab newspapers to bolster his personal image at the cost of Delhi people," she alleged.
Mukherjee accused the government of not learning any lessons from last year's dengue epidemic and raised questions about its seriousness for this season as well.
"The number of dengue cases has been going up year after year, but the AAP government seems to be oblivious to such problems," she said.
Mukherjee said during the Congress regime, plans would be worked out in March itself to prevent water-logging in parts of the national capital.
"Review meetings used to be held in June and a week before the monsoon rains start to ascertain the progress, but no such meetings have been held by the Kejriwal government," she claimed.
