Opinion: How To Solve Delhi's Monsoon Mess
NDTV
Come rain and our cities are reduced to flooded and damaged roads, overflowing drainage, and stinking garbage piles - a living hell.
The root cause of the problem seems to be poor planning and unbridled unauthorised constructions, which have ruined lakes, swamps and drainage systems in cities. Flooding can't be solved merely by desilting drains. Neither can it be resolved by the blame game between state governments and civic bodies after every deluge. The lack of coordination between government departments and municipal corporations is evident as the cleaning, desilting of drains and the maintenance of civic infrastructure, which different departments oversee, are often ill-managed.
Over the years, the citizens of Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, along with those of newer metros like Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad, have been struggling with sewage-clogged roads, traffic nightmares and the loss of lives due to flooding, open manholes, and electrocution during monsoon. Cities in India are the propellers of economic growth and their contribution to GDP is around 60 per cent.
