Delhi Congress demands Rs 20 lakh compensation to the next of kin of 33-year-old Devendra alias Kalu, who drowned in a drain during Tuesday’s rain & Judicial enquiry into the incident Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender Yadav said that the death of a youth due to drowning in rain water in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi was a heart-wrenching incident for which the Delhi BJP Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi should be held responsible. He said that the 33-year-old Devendra alias Kalu, who fell into the drain in front of the Dargah Hazrat Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, tried to be rescued by the fire department but they could only retrieve his lifeless body, and the incident happened due to the civic negligence of the Rekha Gupta Government and the MCD. Devender Yadav demanded that a compensation of Rs 20 lakh should be given to the next of kin of the dead youth and a judicial inquiry should be conducted into this tragic incident to fix responsibility.
Fulfill BJP’s promise of desilting and cleaning of drains
Devender Yadav said that the Delhi Government headed by CM Rekha Gupta and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had failed to fulfill BJP’s promise of desilting and cleaning of drains and sewers to prevent waterlogging during rains. He said that it has come to light that a few days ago, the Deputy Chief Minister had visited the area and on whose orders the wiremesh over the drain was removed. He said thtat the BJP government, which claims to be running a campaign of cleaning drains, repairing broken roads and sanitation drive, is only doing photo-ops and empty rhetoric without actually doing any work, and the death of a young man was yet another instance of the incompetent governance model of the BJP Government. Devender Yadav said that the heavy rain on Tuesday’s has once again exposed the poor developmental model of the Rekha Gupta government, as half of Delhi, including Mehrauli, Badarpur Flyover, MB Road, Mundka, Rohini Vishwakarma Road, had been submerged, and the death of a young man by falling into a drain was due to the negligence of the Delhi government and the MCD. He said that on September 17, a 40-year-old man named Arvind died while doing manual scavenging of a sewer, for which the Delhi government has not yet taken any action against those responsible for the tragedy.
Supreme Court on manual cleaning of drains
Devender Yadav said that despite raising concerns by the NGT and the Supreme Court on manual cleaning of drains, the Rekha Gupta Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have not done away with this obnoxious practice though the Government has given financial powers to bureaucrats for carrying out development works up to 10 crores.
