31 August,2017 10:31 AM IST | Mumbai | Hemal Ashar
The BMC is at the receiving end of abuse over the breakdown of services in the city again. But BMC chief, Ajoy Mehta defends the beleaguered civic body and says he does not have to answer to loose talk
BMC chief Ajoy Mehta
The BMC is at the receiving end of the choicest abuse over the breakdown of services in the city again. But BMC chief Ajoy Mehta defends the beleaguered civic body and says he does not have to answer to loose talk.
BMC chief Ajoy Mehta defends the beleaguered civic body and says he does not have to answer to loose talk.
The interview:
On all guns trained at the BMC again...
Mehta: Which guns are you talking about? Which guns have been pointed at the BMC? I am not going to answer any loose comments.
Breakdown in services during the deluge and severe problems for residents...
Mehta: All the BMC services were running. There was BEST power, there was water supply, and there was one wall collapse...
The waterlogging never seems to go away...
Mehta: Let me say this straight. We had 200mm of rain in one hour. We are equipped to handle 50mm of rain per hour. Let us be honest about it. If I tell you to fit 10 passengers on a scooter, will you be able to? What is a fact is a fact.
Some areas remain perennially water-logged they are always problematic. Why?
Mehta: Water receded fairly quickly but I admit Hindmata needs attention. We are probing why it continues to remain waterlogged. There is also Bandra (E) where, it was discovered that there was some 'dumping' on the mouth of the outfall (where it opens out to the sea). The minute that was cleared, the water came down. We have handled things better; there has been a huge improvement from 2005 to 2017. I would say we have improved even from 2015. People affected have been much less and the city was back on its feet very fast, by 8 am to be precise. Only the Railways were not fully operational because of course, there is the safety aspect to think of.
The common man continues to bash BMC, pointing to ineptness...
Mehta: There are people who want to earn brownie points. I will say the BMC performed beautifully. All agencies co-ordinated well. This was meticulously planned. We must have pumped out 9,000 million litres of water in approximately five hours. The 9,000 million litres is equal to two Tulsi Lakes. I would like to tell people not to shift to private transport, from public, the minute it starts raining heavily. This results in too many vehicles on the road, causing problems. Our emergency services cannot move properly, fire services need to move.
