MP Seeks Vigilance Probe on Drain Encroachments

GURUGRAM: Union minister and city Member of Parliament Rao Inderjit Singh has sought an immediate vigilance inquiry into alleged lapses by the irrigation department in keeping natural stormwater drains free of encroachments, linking the issue to repeated monsoon waterlogging across key junctions.

In a letter to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini dated September 8, Singh said the matter surfaced at a September 2 meeting with officials of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, HSVP and other agencies after heavy rain disrupted traffic at Udyog Vihar, Shankar Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and Sohna Road. Officials at that meeting, he wrote, said the irrigation department was responsible for keeping natural drains and drainage routes clear.

Notices without removals, says the letter

According to the letter, officials told Singh that one officer, identified as Shiv Singh Rawat, had remained posted in the city for about seven years, first as assistant executive engineer and later as superintending engineer, before retiring recently. The department had issued hundreds of notices to builders under the Canal and Drainage Act over alleged encroachments on natural drains, the letter said, but the encroachments were not removed and efforts were made to suppress the notices.

Singh further alleged that while the irrigation department held responsibility for natural drains under the Canal Act, no budget had been spent on cleaning those drains for seven years, contributing to waterlogging in large parts of the city. He described the alleged inaction as irresponsible and as criminal negligence and urged the chief minister to order a probe so that those found responsible could be punished according to law.

Rawat, the retired superintending engineer named in the letter, has rejected the attribution. He said the natural drainage system of the city fell under the superintending engineer, water services circle, Faridabad, and the executive engineer, Mewat water services division, Nuh, not under the Gurgaon construction circle he headed. That circle, he said, was a project-based construction organisation whose major NCR water-supply role related to the NCR water supply canal for drinking water.

Rawat also said major urban drainage components, including the Badshahpur Drain and its Leg-1 and Leg-2 systems, have been under HUDA, MCG and later GMDA as per successive administrative arrangements, and that drainage inside municipal areas is generally maintained by urban local bodies and development authorities. He called it a concern that incorrect information appeared to have been placed before a senior Union minister without verification from departmental records.

The exchange lands in a city that has seen VIP inspections, human-rights commission audits and repeated citizen complaints about flooded underpasses every monsoon. Whether vigilance takes up Singh's request will decide if the seven-year notice trail is examined on record. For now, the letter and Rawat's rebuttal stand as competing official narratives about who owns Gurugram's natural drains and why encroachments allegedly survived hundreds of paper notices.