Delhi LG Sandhu, CM Rekha Gupta direct prompt action to prevent deaths due to rain-related incidents

Delhi LG Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday chaired a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on the city government’s monsoon preparedness and stressed that all necessary steps be taken to ensure there is minimal or no flooding at all in the city.

He also called for the fixing of responsibility for failures of duties.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, cabinet ministers Parvesh Sahib Singh and Ashish Sood as well as top officers of various departments and agencies, officials at the LG office said.

The chief minister also stressed that no drain, sewer line or manhole should be left uncovered and any potholes or ditches should be levelled immediately. She underlined zero tolerance for any accident on these accounts.

As a preventive measure, the issue of the removal of dangerous trees that often fall during storms or heavy rainfall was also discussed in the meeting. It was underlined that action to this effect should be proactive rather than as a reaction to tragic accidents.

Raising serious concerns, the chief minister directed that such trees be identified and removed on a priority basis to prevent any loss of life, the officials said.

Lieutenant Governor Sandhu as well as Chief Minister Gupta said that there should be no delay in resolving any flooding or accident-related issues on account of jurisdictional divisions between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and the Public Works Department (PWD), and called for quick and coordinated resolution regardless of the agency under which the site falls.

In the meeting, Sandhu expressed satisfaction that waterlogging sites in the city declined from 194 in 2024 to 169 in 2025, and remarkably reduced to just 34 till now in 2026, the officials said.

Both the LG and the chief minister directed deployment of mobile heavy-duty pumps, real-time public feedback and on-ground situation monitoring, besides coordination with the neighbouring states to strengthen the capital’s disaster response mechanism, they said.

At the outset, the LG as well as Gupta observed that there was much scope for improvement even though there had been a significant improvement in the flooding situation in the city in comparison to 2024 and 2025, the officials said.

Emphasising that Met predictions indicated spells of heavy and sudden rainfall, Sandhu underlined that all steps must be undertaken to ensure that there is minimal or no flooding at all. He cautioned that accountability in this regard was of extreme importance and responsibility for failures will be fixed, they said.

The LG reiterated that although flooding was largely a legacy issue in the city, officials should enforce all measures to tackle it in the short-term, even as the long-term drainage master plan is being implemented.

Officials informed in the meeting that the MCD, Irrigation and Flood Control Department and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had achieved their target of de-silting of drains.

The Delhi government’s PWD has achieved about 95 per cent de-silting target, with the work on the remaining target being hampered by encroachments on drains under its jurisdiction, the officials said.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has till now de-silted 85.5 per cent of its trunk sewer lines, 91.1 per cent of its peripheral sewer lines and 90.16 per cent of its branch sewer lines.

Chief Minister Gupta stressed that the silt removed from the drain should be essentially disposed of simultaneously with the desilting work.

The LG further directed that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in Delhi be made operational at the earliest and its strength be increased.