Mumbai will be flooded yet again due to BMC’s incompetence, claims AAP; slams civic body for 'inadequate monsoon preparations'

The Aam Aadmi Party AAP on Monday slammed the Mumbairsquos civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC for poor progress of premonsoon preparationsThe Arvind Kejriwalled party said that the onset of the monsoon is hardly two weeks away and yet despite the tall claims made by the civic body very little work has actually happened on the groundThe party volunteers inspected various parts of Mumbai to check the BMCrsquos preparations and the findings were appalling it saidIt alleged that the BMCs tall claims are only on paper and are far off from the ground realityAlso Read Aam Aadmi Party dissolves state and regional committees in Maharashtra except MumbaiContractors are having a field day They are doing very little work which is far from satisfactory The BMC staff is procontractor and not propeople Nullah cleaning desilting work is not satisfactory large parts of the Nullah systems are yet to be desilted and very little desilting has happened in areas that the BMC claims desilting has already been completed it saidThe party further claimed that the storm water drains havent been adequately cleaned and several spots are prone to chronic flooding are still cloggedNo cleaning whatsoever has been undertaken in slum areas where the gutter in each GalliLane acts as both the sewer and the storm water drain These drainage systems have multiple chokes and result in inundation causing hardship to the slums it saidThe Arvind Kejriwalled party also claimed that BMC has done nothing in landslide prone areas to prevent the occurrence of a landslide during the upcoming monsoon despite identifying these areas Manholes and drain covers are either broken or not in place in several locations of the cityAAP Mumbais working president Ruben Mascarenhas slammed the citys civic body saying that Mumbai will flood yet again due to BMCs incompetenceThe BJP is in power at all three levels of government BMC has been functioning without public representation for almost 2 years now BMC administration is nothing but proxy BJP rule through the administrator BJP has literally put the lives of millions of Mumbaikars at risk due to such shoddy premonsoon work said MascarenhasAAP Mumbais vicepresident Gopal Jhaveri said Mumbai will flood this year too owning to the BMCs shoddy premonsoon preparations BMCs premonsoon preparation is an annual ritual an ungrounded formality and opportunity for contractors to pocket large sums of moneyAnother party leader Pius Varghese said that Mumbaikars are left to the mercy of the elements and the vagaries of the monsoonImagine the sheer incompetence of the BMC that an annually certain event like the monsoon cannot be prepared for adequately We demand urgent intervention of the Maharashtra government to ensure the BMC gets its house in order We will not allow the BMC to be callous with Mumbaikarsrsquo lives Varghese said