It did not rain at places we termed ‘chronic’, says BMC
In his very first meeting after his return from the 10-day visit to the US, where he had gone to woo investment for the state, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was told that everything was under control, except for the exaggerated media reports of the heavy downpour that hit the city.
Visibly satisfied with his subordinates’ report card, Deshmukh told mediapersons that it was unkind on nature’s part to have rained at the most unexpected of places. Immediately after landing in Mumbai at 2 am on Thursday, Deshmukh summoned officials from nearly 15 agencies to take stock of the situation. MMRDA officials told Deshmukh that they managed everything in the city well, while the image created by the media was an exaggerated one. Deshmukh was also told that not much water-logging took place in the city.
BMC officials passed the buck on Railways, saying their culverts and drainage system, which were not up to the mark, had led to water-logging on tracks followed by non -functioning of the trains. He kept reiterating his philosophy of drainage capacity of 40 mm rains per hour and flooding in low-lying areas. When Deshmukh sought explanation from Railway officials they had their own explanation.
“It rained heavily in areas we did not expect it and hence the rain-preparedness did not work. Secondly, the railway stations that witnessed flooding do not have other channels to pump out water,” Railway officials told Deshmukh, who pulled them up, saying that the reason would not be tolerated henceforth. “How long has this been repeated? Look for immediate solutions,” the officials were told.
Even after the meeting Deshmukh said nature had been unkind. “Our machinery has been preparing for the monsoon for the last one year, but this time round heavy showers were witnessed on spots other than those identified as chronic ones,” he said. Deshmukh clarified that the Milan Subway problem would be solved by next year, as the Civil Aviation permission for a flyover at the subway is expected soon and the work would start by this October.
Meanwhile, Deshmukh directed BMC officials with mobile squads and rescue teams which could reach the flood prone spots immediately. “Only monitoring could not be the solution on the emergencies, you should be physically present with full fledged machinery,” Deshmukh told BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak.
While rubbishing Mayor Shubha Raul’s claim that the flooding was due to encroachments and high-rises, CM said that both these things came under BMC prerogatives.
