Delhi residents facing the wrath of floods had a new menace to deal with on Saturday as water entered some of the relief camps in the Yamuna Bazar area, NDTV reported.
In one such case, Public Works Department Minister Atishi said that water had entered a camp near the Bhairon Mandir in Pragati Maidan area after the wall of a drain broke down. The residents have been evacuated and shifted to another relief camp, Atishi wrote in a tweet.
On Sunday morning, more people were shifted out of relief camps that Atishi said had some problems. The residents will be shifted to nearby schools and provided with better facilities, she told reporters.
Over the last week, Delhi has been witnessing the worst flood-like situation in several decades. Many key areas of the city like the Red Fort, ITO crossing, Civil Lines, Pragati Maidan and Kashmere Gate have been inundated. Several key areas are still waterlogged.
After the city received more rainfall on Saturday evening, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned that the danger of a flood still prevailed. He said that the water level in Yamuna was receding but requested citizens to stay vigilant.
Earlier this week, the Yamuna had swollen to its highest-ever levels in Delhi. At 10 am on Sunday, the river was flowing at 205.95 metres, which was still above the danger mark of 205.33 metres.
In a relief to a potential drinking water crisis, the Chandrawal and Wazirabad water treatment plants – which had submerged – also became operational on Sunday morning. A third treatment plant in Okhla had resumed functioning on Saturday, according to PTI.
AAP vs BJP over floods
Earlier on Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party engaged in a blame game over the flood situation in Delhi.
At a press conference, Water Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP governments at the Centre and Haryana had conspired to release water from the Hathnikund barrage in the adjacent state, PTI reported.
“The water from Hathnikund Barrage is released from three canals – Western Canal, Eastern Canal and Yamuna,” Bharadwaj said. “As part of a conspiracy, between July 9 and 13, water was released from Yamuna canal only towards Delhi. There was no water released through the Western and Eastern Canal.”
However, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia and party MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma blamed mismanagement by the Kejriwal government for the waterlogging. They said that since coming to power in 2015, the AAP government had not desilted the Yamuna river.
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