Delhi Minister Sood blames previous govt for waterlogging in 6 schools AAP hits back

     New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Thursday blamed the previous AAP government for waterlogging in six government schools in Nithari village, alleging that over 14,000 students have been affected by it since 2020.
    Responding to a social media post by former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on the condition of Delhi, Sood alleged that the AAP government failed to address the issue despite repeated complaints.
     "These schools have been facing waterlogging for the past five years. Whenever it rains, classes are disrupted and students have to be sent home. This has been happening since 2020, during the tenure of the previous government," Sood said.
     According to him, an inspection revealed that the area earlier had a pond, which allowed rainwater to drain naturally. He alleged the pond was concretised during the previous government's tenure, claiming that the work was carried out under pressure from the "land mafia."
     The minister said the Public Works Department has been asked to conduct an immediate investigation, and necessary repair work is being undertaken to prevent accidents.
     AAP, in a statement, hit back and said BJP's "four-engine government" has no interest in working and denied Sood''s allegations.
     "For every failure, they resort to the same tired script - blame Arvind Kejriwal, just as the BJP’s central government blames Nehru ji for everything," said the party.
     Sood's charge came in response to a video Kejriwal shared on X in which an uprooted tree fell on a scooter, reportedly killing the rider and injuring the pillion.
     "In just a few months, what a mess the BJP folks have made of Delhi," the former CM said in his post on X.
     A report from the Directorate of Education mentioned, "For the past several years, since 2020, all six government schools located in the Nithari Village in Delhi have been facing persistent problems of waterlogging during the rainy season. The issue has become more severe this year due to multiple compounding factors."
     It said that the ground level of the school buildings is lower than the surrounding road level, resulting in easy accumulation of rainwater inside and around the school premises.
     There is no permanent or effective drainage solution to discharge the accumulated water, it added.
     The AAP said during Kejriwal’s tenure, "not a single case of waterlogging in schools was recorded".
     "Today, under BJP’s watch, not only are Delhi government schools flooded, even rainwater is seeping inside Lutyens’ Delhi. The BJP must stop evading accountability — the people of Delhi elected them to work, not to shirk responsibility by pointing fingers at the AAP Government and Arvind Kejriwal," they said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)