Delhi floods in the north-central part of Bharat, namely Haryana, Delhi and Western UP took place and rocked the people. Here, the north-west winds and the easterly winds coagulate and hence this area is prone to extreme temperatures.
As both these winds meet around Delhi, there is very little movement of air in this region. Hence, pollution, greenhouse gases, clouds and other particulate matter enter this region and coagulate here, which gives Delhi its increasingly extreme temperature.
While the rains and the hot desert winds from the northeast were both blocked by the Aravalli hills in Gurugram, the traditional village of Guru Dronacharya from the Treta Yuga era, it was Kushal Pal Singh of the Indian National Congress in the 1970s who illegally got the permission to demolish the Aravalli Hills to establish a city called “Gurgaon” and launder money for the party through his real estate firm Delhi Land and Finance, or DLF for short. This was in Rajiv Gandhi’s era.
Since then, we have seen the weather of Delhi become even more extreme, and it increasingly makes lesser sense to develop and establish a city in today’s Indraprastha that we call “Delhi”, the city named after Raja Dhillu.
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Delhi Floods 2024 vs Haryana and UP
The floods in Delhi in 2024 were exceptionally much worse than the neighbouring Haryana and Western UP. Harigarh had a similar situation of flooding last year, where in 2023 floods rocked the city. However, this was mitigated and handled much better this year, when the water level went high but cleared just as fast. You can read an assessment by Sphere India here.
Haryana, meanwhile must be given special recognition by the state MCD in this 2024 flooding. It was on 27th June 2024, a day before the flooding, that Haryana’s Chief Secretary T.V.S.N. Prasad gave the expedite order to clean up the sewage system before the monsoon approached. Most weather can be tracked using satellite images and warning signs can be obvious.
The various Mayors of several MCDs in Haryana’s cities coordinated under the Expedite orders of T.V.S.N. Prasad and worked overnight to get the sewage system clean. This is why Haryana had the most efficient sewage system this season, cleaning up just in the nick of time.
Meanwhile, according to insider sources, the Delhi MCD “Dr” Shelly Oberoi seems dismissive of the suffering of the people and was reportedly sleeping when the flooding started. You can watch her worry more about Dengue and less about the property damage in the flooding here:
“Dr.” Shelly Oberoi did her PhD from Indira Gandhi National Open University, in Commerce, earning her her “Dr.” credentials. In another interview with the ANI, she says that the MCD has handled the situation better than “the last time”, which seems to be false as per those on the ground and also indicates a repetitiveness in such incidents of flooding if true. There is no right answer here, as it is either better than previous years which means even more people died and more property damage was happening in previous years, or the interview below is a blatant lie. You can watch it here:
The pipeline near the AIIMS area, the premiere hospital of Bharat and on the streets which the families of many patients who come from across the country sleep on the footpath of, had a pipeline block. This blockage caused major flooding as it was not cleaned or maintained properly on time.
Losses in Delhi Floods 2024
Along with those poor families of the patients in AIIMS, there were also labourers in Vasant Vihar, potters and street urchins who have been reported missing or whose cases are unreported. You can see some cases here:
The flooding is reported to have caused one death near the airport, although the real number is much higher and many people’s house helps and Ola drivers are reporting 4-5 deaths in their known circles. Those in Delhi must ask their househelps how many deaths they know of.
The opposition is busy attacking bigger infrastructure projects like Ram Mandir and the T1 roof. Meanwhile, Ayodhya rains were different from these rains, and the T1 roof was built in 2009 under the UPA, and the other side of the airport was inaugurated by the NDA last year.
You can see Atishi Marlena lie about 228mm flood being the highest in the history of Delhi here. But the highest amount of rain is 266mm, which was recorded in 1958, so in 2024 one would assume a system to hold more than the highest recorded would be in place. The other case in 1978 was due to the Yamuna River overflowing, which had nothing to do with the sewage system malfunctioning. This incident happened after 24 hours of continuous rains, and it led to 207mm of rainwater flooding. Read more of it here.
Shimla was also hit negatively by the floods:
Conclusion
This flooding has been the worst Delhi has seen in decades. Meanwhile, Haryana which was rocked with floods almost every year from the 1970s till the 1990s, has not experienced the same level of negligence. The full credit goes to IAS TVSN Prasad for this in Haryana. May more states and territories see IAS officers like him.
In several states of the USA, Canada, and South Africa, the people can directly sue the Municipality for their losses. The South African people had changed their constitution once after independence. In Europe, there are indirect “Small Claims Procedures”. In Bharat, the best we can ask is for sitting members to resign, and hope it trends. The resignation is only a token gesture and benefits no one in the long run. Real reparations must be part of both the law and the constitution.
As politicians continue to lie to the people across the spectrum, we must ask ourselves: what changes can be made in the constitution to earn the citizens the right to sue their MCDs for negligence and losses? The current system cannot go on forever.
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