BJP and AAP blame each other for waterlogging in Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) traded barbs on Friday over the issue of waterlogging in the Capital every monsoon. The BJP accused former AAP water ministers Satyendar Jain and his successor Saurabh Bhardwaj of indulging in corruption, leading to lack of maintenance work by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), and the AAP blamed the “artificially created financial crisis in DJB, orchestrated by the lieutenant governor (LG) and BJP-controlled officers”.
Meanwhile, Delhi Congress trained its gun on AAP and said water minister Atishi was not bothered about waterlogging in the Capital.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Friday said Bhardwaj’s order on July 21 directing DJB officials that not a “single rupee” work order should be issued without the minister’s approval affected maintenance work by the agency and led to Delhi being submerged this monsoon. In a statement, Sachdeva said Bharadwaj was not only responsible for waterlogging but also around 35 deaths reported so far this year due to waterlogging and added that he must immediately resign.
The BJP leader said that on Thursday, Atishi withdrew the orders of the former water ministers after chief secretary flagged the issue to her.
“Chief secretary and Delhi Jal Board officials have explained to the minister that on June 5, 2020, Jain, and then on July 21, 2023, Bhardwaj, issued orders that no official could issue a work order worth even ₹100 without the approval of the departmental minister. This led to a complete breakdown in the maintenance services of DJB for the past one year. After the chief secretary exposed the orders of the then water ministers Bhardwaj and Jain, which encouraged corruption, a humiliated Atishi had to annul their orders on August 22, 2024,” Sachdeva said.
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Delhi reported several deaths due to waterlogging, including a 40-year-old man who died of electrocution at his submerged home at Kirari in northwest Delhi last week and three IAS aspirants who drowned in the flooded basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar last month.
However, AAP hit back at BJP, claiming that “BJP through LG and bureaucracy turned Delhi into a living hell.”
The AAP in response to Sachdeva’s claims said, “Despite the Delhi government allocating ₹7,195 crore — 9.5% of the total budget — to DJB, the agency remains starved of funds. This is due to files endlessly shuttling between DJB, urban development department and finance department, leading to the ongoing crisis.”
Sachdeva said due to the Bharadwaj’s order, the DJB officials are unable to issue any orders for repairs or major cleaning work even as the entire city is struggling with waterlogging, with places like Kirari, Sangam Vihar, and Burari, Rohini, Rajendra Nagar, Patel Nagar, and Kamla Nagar are severely affected.
Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said, “When it rains, many parts of the city go under water, but no Delhi minister was around to see the plight of the people stuck in traffic jams and waterlogged streets. The AAP government has done no work in the last 10 years, and people are now looking up to the Congress to resume work that has been stalled for the last 10 years.”