Flooding happened due to no Yamuna desiliting, says Lekhi; asks why AAP govt did not announce compensation

New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) Senior BJP leader Meenakashi Lekhi on Sunday alleged that the flood situation in parts of Delhi happened due to “lack of dredging of the Yamuna”, even as she asked as to why the Arvind Kejriwal government has not announced any compensation to farmers and others who have suffered damage of crops and loss of properties in the deluge.

At a press conference held here, she also alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) “seeks to do politics” in every adversity, and its leaders only go for “photo-ops” but make no efforts to serve the masses impacted by the flooding.

The Yamuna had been in spate for the last one week, swelling to 207.71 metres on Wednesday, breaching its all-time record of 207.49 metres set in 1978, and inundating several key areas in the national capital, leaving a large number of people marooned.

The water level came down to 207.98 metres at 11 pm on Friday from 208.66 metres on Thursday, three metres above the danger mark of 205.33 metres. The level on Sunday was recorded at 205.98 metres.

Though the Yamuna water level has come down, politics over the issue continues unabated.

Lekhi, during her interaction with media, also alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not attend meetings of the apex committee for flood control and preparedness in the past. From June 30, the meeting was further postponed to July 3 and then to July 6, she said.

The ruling AAP, however, denied the claim and said the meeting to discuss flood preparedness chaired by Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj took place on May 9.

While the BJP has been cornering the AAP over the flood-like situation in Delhi, AAP leaders have alleged that the BJP-led government in Haryana released excessive water from Hathnikund barrage which flooded the Yamuna, with water flowing onto the streets and roads of the national capital.

As swollen Yamuna breached its 45-year record on Wednesday, experts attributed the situation to encroachment of floodplains, extreme rainfall in a short duration, and accumulation of silt, which elevated the riverbed.

Major floods in Delhi occurred in 1924, 1977, 1978, 1995, 2010 and 2013.

According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the flow rate at the Hathnikund Barrage increased to 3,59,760 cusecs at 11 am on Tuesday, the highest in the last three days. It oscillated between 1 lakh cusecs and 3 lakh cusecs on Wednesday.

Lekhi claimed that more volume of water than 3,59,760 cusecs was released in some of the previous years, including in August 2019 when 8,28,000 cusec water was released.

“So, how did the flood come? Will someone answer?” she asked.

“Only Kejriwal can answer this…and the dredging that was to happen. And, if Rs 6,800 crore budget for five years was there for cleaning of the Yamuna, we would like to know where was that money spent. Where did the money go? Because dredging was not done. I feel there should be a probe on this spending,” she told reporters.

Lekhi also quoted a July 14 tweet by Kejriwal to buttress her claim on lack of dredging of Yamuna.

“After nearly 20 hours of non-stop toil, the first jammed gate of the ITO Barrage has been opened. A diving team extracted the silt from under the water with a compressor, then the gate was pulled up with a hydra crane. Soon all the five gates will be opened,” the Delhi CM had tweeted.

Lekhi claimed if the tweet mentions that “silt from under the water” was extracted, it suggests, dredging was not done.

“Flood has come due to desiliting not happening, people on job (in flood department) not being deployed, as they were waiting for orders,” she said.

She said 25,000 people were on the streets affected by flooding, and farmers have suffered crop damage and many others have faced loss of property.

“My first question is why the (AAP) government has not announced any compensation to farmers and others affected by flooding?” she asked.

Lekhi also asked why has the sewage plan made since 2018 not been implemented yet.

She also raised the issue of encroachments in Yamuna floodplains and asked if they will be removed.