22 May,2023 05:08 PM IST | Mumbai | Ronak Mastakar
Pic/AAP Mumbai
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday slammed the Mumbai's civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), for poor progress of pre-monsoon preparations.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party said that the onset of the monsoon is hardly two weeks away and yet despite the tall claims made by the civic body, very little work has actually happened on the ground.
The party volunteers inspected various parts of Mumbai to check the BMC's preparations and "the findings were appalling," it said.
It alleged that the BMC's tall claims are only on paper and are far off from the ground reality.
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"Contractors are having a field day. They are doing very little work which is far from satisfactory. The BMC staff is pro-contractor and not pro-people. Nullah cleaning - desilting work is not satisfactory, large parts of the Nullah systems are yet to be desilted and very little desilting has happened in areas that the BMC claims desilting has already been completed," it said.
The party further claimed that the storm water drains haven't been adequately cleaned and several spots are prone to chronic flooding are still clogged.
"No cleaning whatsoever has been undertaken in slum areas, where the gutter in each 'Galli/Lane' acts as both the sewer and the storm water drain. These drainage systems have multiple chokes and result in inundation, causing hardship to the slums," it said.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party also claimed that BMC has done nothing in landslide prone areas, to prevent the occurrence of a landslide during the up-coming monsoon, despite identifying these areas. Manholes and drain covers are either broken or not in place in several locations of the city.
AAP Mumbai's working president Ruben Mascarenhas slammed the city's civic body, saying that Mumbai will flood yet again, due to BMC's incompetence.
"The BJP is in power at all three levels of government. BMC has been functioning without public representation for almost 2 years now. BMC administration is nothing but proxy BJP rule through the administrator. BJP has literally put the lives of millions of Mumbaikars at risk, due to such shoddy pre-monsoon work," said Mascarenhas.
AAP Mumbai's vice-president Gopal Jhaveri said: "Mumbai will flood this year too, owning to the BMC's shoddy pre-monsoon preparations. BMC's pre-monsoon preparation is an annual ritual, an ungrounded formality and opportunity for contractors to pocket large sums of money."
Another party leader Pius Varghese said that Mumbaikars are left to the mercy of the elements and the vagaries of the monsoon.
"Imagine the sheer incompetence of the BMC, that an annually certain event like the monsoon, cannot be prepared for adequately. We demand urgent intervention of the Maharashtra government to ensure the BMC gets it's house in order. We will not allow the BMC to be callous with Mumbaikars' lives," Varghese said.
