Delhi Government Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma on Thursday held the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government responsible for the persistent waterlogging in Kirari, alleging that no effective sewerage or drainage infrastructure was developed in the constituency for more than a decade.
Refuting what he called politically motivated misinformation, the Minister placed official records in the public domain to highlight what he described as prolonged neglect under the former AAP regime, while also outlining a clear, time-bound roadmap to permanently resolve the long-standing problem.
Speaking to the media, Verma said misleading claims about waterlogging in Kirari had been circulating on social media over the past week. “Today, I am putting facts on record. I hope the Opposition, particularly AAP leaders, are paying attention,” he said.
The Minister said official data shows that only Rs 43 lakh was spent on sewage maintenance in Kirari over the last 11 years, despite the area facing persistent waterlogging for decades. He noted that Kirari’s colonies were established well before 2000, yet successive governments failed to put in place a comprehensive sewer network. Verma alleged that both the Congress and AAP governments lacked any long-term planning to resolve the problem.
He added that media coverage over the years repeatedly showed the same images of waterlogged streets, underscoring how the issue was ignored rather than effectively tackled.
Verma said a major sewerage project for Kirari, approved in December 2020 with a target completion date of December 2024, remained largely stalled for years due to administrative failures and poor inter-departmental coordination under the previous regime.
He said work has now picked up pace, with sewer line coverage increasing from 70 per cent, or 286 km, to 84 per cent, or 340 km, including the addition of 54 km of new lines. He noted substantial progress in areas such as Pratap Vihar, Prem Nagar and at the Bhagya Vihar Sewage Pumping Station. “Projects existed only on paper. Execution was neglected, contractors stopped work due to non-payment, and sewage continued to flow into open drains,” the Minister said, adding that the revised deadline for completing the project is June 2026, with phased commissioning planned before that.
The Minister also referred to audit findings that pointed to serious planning lapses, stating that expenditure on sewage pumping stations and rising mains was carried out without ensuring adequate treatment capacity. He said Kirari generates about 36 MGD of sewage, while only one 15 MGD sewage treatment plant is currently functional and another 25 MGD plant is still awaiting construction. “This clearly reflects the lack of integrated planning, where infrastructure was created without ensuring the sewage could actually be treated,” Verma said.
Verma said the current government has adopted a coordinated and accountable approach, with drain remodelling being carried out by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department and parallel works underway by the PWD to ensure inter-departmental coordination.
He said major projects include a Rs 220 crore drain from Mundka Halt to the Supplementary Drain, a Rs 250 crore, 7.2-km Kirari–Rithala trunk drain being built by the DDA, Rs 112 crore remodelling of the KSN drain, and a Rs 183 crore upgrade of the Rohtak Road drain, which is nearing completion. In addition, a Rs 9.4 crore project is underway in Sharma Colony to improve local drains and strengthen outfall connectivity through the Mubarakpur drain.