A day after tax-paying residents reeled under hardships due to heavy water-logging, mayor Sunil Prabhu on Thursday instructed civic chief Sitaram Kunte to serve notices to the railways and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the same.
Mumbai received more than 180mm rainfall on Wednesday, paralyzing vehicular movement and rail services at 21 spots, including chronic areas like Kurla. Train services on Central Railway's main and harbor lines were running late by 30-45 minutes due to flooding near Kurla station. While the rainfall exposed a lack of preparation on the part of BMC and the railways, the mayor chose to defend the civic body.
"Due to the shoddy pre-monsoon work by the railways and MMRDA, Mumbaikars were subjected to troubles. Who will take responsibility for the same? Hence, I have asked the municipal authorities to serve notices to MMRDA and railways under Disaster Management Act, 2005," said Prabhu.
When asked, Kunte said that he has not received any formal letter in this regard from Prabhu. "There was discussion in this connection on Wednesday. But we are yet to receive any letter from the mayor. We are studying all the aspects of the flooding and inspecting which governing agency should be held responsible in the concerned areas. Only after analyzing all aspects, will we decide on further course of action," Kunte added.
Opposition leader and Congress corporator from Andheri, Devendra Amberkar, slammed the BMC. "It was the duty of BMC to ensure the railways carry out de-silting work properly as we have paid them hefty funds for the purpose. Also, the flooding was mainly due to localized issues. So, the mayor is simply trying to shrug BMC's responsibility and target other agencies," Amberkar said.
Meanwhile, civic activists said their complaints about cleaning of drains went unheard on Thursday too. "Following the rain, silt from unclean drains has come out on roads. There are at least 10 such roads in Parsi and Hindu colonies in Dadar. However, the local BMC staff did not clear it. They claim there is an issue regarding transportation of waste at Kanjur Marg dumping ground and hence, there is a delay in removing waste, post rains," Nikhil Desai, King's Circle-based civic activist, said.
Box
The municipal commissioner, being chief of the district disaster management authority, can execute his powers under section 30 of the Disaster Management Act to any person/agency to see no untoward incident takes place
On July 3, the BMC claimed to have not received any complaint regarding water-logging
It received 32 tree fall complaints in a day
As on Thursday, the civic body claimed to have received 1135 potholes, a rise of 84 pits, compared to Wednesday
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