Come Back To Work Or Delhi Will Face Waterlogging, AAP Urges Babus

New Delhi: The standoff between the elected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government and the bureaucracy in Delhi has come at a very inconvenient time for city residents. With less than two weeks to go before the onset of the monsoon over Delhi, the city faces the risk of waterlogging as three-fourth (3/4th) of the big drains in Delhi are yet to be de-silted. The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday issued a fresh appeal to officials, urging them to continue their duty. The AAP has claimed that since the last four months, bureaucrats in Delhi Government have been on “strike”.

“Monsoon is almost upon us. Very soon, it will start raining heavily and unless we get to work urgently, drains all across Delhi will start overflowing with rainwater. The summer is the time when de-silting of drains is to be carried out. There are 200 big drains across Delhi and de-silting has been carried out in only 50. This is only one-fourth of the total drains in the city. The work has been sluggish because officials in the Public Works Department (PWD) have refused to attend meetings called by Minister Satyendar Jain,” said senior AAP leader Atishi Marlena.

This, AAP claimed, was a dereliction of duty and the IAS Association, which had until now denied that a strike was taking place, has contradicted itself. Marlena added, “IAS Association has admitted that they don't go to routine meetings called by ministers. They don't go for meetings, they don't go for inspections. Is that not a strike?”

Giving details of some crucial meetings that officials have missed recently, Marlena said, “We had a meeting to improve mid-day meals for schools. On Feb 22, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia called a meeting for Feb 26 at 5 pm. Not a single officer turned up for that meeting. On 27, another notice was sent. The meeting was scheduled for March 5. Yet again, not a single officer turned up. Outer Delhi has very few colleges. A meeting was called Feb 22 to fix that. When the time came for that meeting, nobody came. It is the constitutional dharma of bureaucrats to come to carry out the work decided by ministers.”