'Gurugram MCG Commissioner Must Be Sacked': Environmentalist on Gurugram Flood Chaos

In the aftermath of devastating floods that again paralyzed Gurugram, environmentalist Vimlendu Jha has called for the immediate sacking of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) Commissioner. The city remains crippled each monsoon with massive waterlogging and infrastructure failures. Watch as expert reveal the ground realities behind this recurring civic crisis and demand accountability from city authorities.

#GurugramFloods #MCGCommissioner #VimlenduJha #GurugramFloodCrisis #FloodingInGurugram #Gurujam #EnvironmentalIssues #UrbanFlooding #MonsoonChaos #CivicCrisis #DrainageFailure #India

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00:00Viewers, today I have with me environmentalist Vimlendu Jha. He is also the founder of

00:16Swecha NGO which is a Delhi based NGO that works towards environmental and social issues.

00:22Thank you so much Mr. Jha for speaking with Asianet News.

00:25Yes, welcome. Mr. Jha I want to start talking about the challenges that the citizens of Gurugram are facing.

00:33You know we are hearing debates everywhere where people are talking about the menace which Gurugram

00:41is going through, waterlogging everywhere, traffic snarls, waste being dumped in open spaces. All of

00:49this is plaguing the city. Why don't we start by you talking a little bit about what are the root causes

00:54of the problem? So you know indeed Gurugram is going through a major crisis, a civic crisis, a climate

01:01crisis, a crisis of governance in that sense but also at the same time it's very important for me

01:06to state that it gets disproportionate attention because it's actually closer to Delhi. That's

01:12point number one and point number two is of course it's one of the richest cities that we actually have

01:16in the country and therefore well but irrespective when we look at Gurugram, it's also a classic case

01:21of how development or urbanization should not have taken place as you know a city if you look at the

01:28first master plan that came in 1962 it clearly said about Gurgaon that you know it should not be

01:34inhabited primarily the human settlement of this nature or this magnitude should not be allowed and

01:40primarily because of lack of underground water in that sense. Despite that we've seen you know indeed

01:46of course historically when you look at urbanization or the growth of Gurgaon it's also the Maruti car

01:53factory that came here closer to this place and then after the land acquisition and a lot of private

02:00entities that came and actually set up the entire city and then later now we have so many we have

02:06hundreds of fortune 500 countries headquartered in Gurgaon. The main problem is that we have not looked at

02:12the carrying capacity or the urbanization capacity uh of a city called Gurgaon or Gurugram now of course

02:19one thing that we've done very very beautifully changed the name but changing the name does not

02:24change the destiny uh of a city uh very very systematically so if you look at the water flow the

02:30topography of Gurugram uh Gurugram uh is is actually from from south to north so to Aravali because it's also

02:38the extension of Aravali mountain range uh it actually drains uh from the south to the north and

02:44north is where uh there's a there's a river which is uh which is now known as Najaf Garnala uh but you

02:50know so the entire thing uh the sahibi river in that sense so that's where the water was supposed to go

02:56but between this entire draining system or the channel of normal topography that that Gurgaon or this

03:02entire region had has been blocked by various constructions a lot of them uh indeed by the

03:08private developers but also by the government that two very very big roads that actually run here uh

03:15in in this path of water in that sense one is the mg road and the other is nh8 uh the national highway

03:21and of course now there's a private developer road called golf course road a lot of conversation of late

03:26has been about golf course road because it's it's a road where uh you know both sides of the road or

03:32both sides of this highway looking fancy fancy road there are there are apartments and condos that are

03:39worth 100 crore 200 crore 300 crore so one was that that we damaged the other is the deforestation with

03:46that with that that took place primarily to really uh have these these these building complexes and these

03:53builders uh that that came about and then there were a lot of these water bodies channels canals

04:01almost 60 of them that actually fed into this entire topography or in that sense of the drainage

04:07that we had and most of them have have actually been blocked so east to west there were these the

04:11water actually drained into this topography and that topography further drained into sahibi river and

04:17sahibi river is one of the main tribute trees as i said of yamuna and then this water actually went into

04:22yamuna so when you actually blocked the water resource water the natural channel which you

04:27might not be able to see it in summer months but that's that's the natural that's for that monsoon

04:33the nature had designed its own its own drainage system that's been completely abandoned the other

04:38is that when you look at the the drainage system the municipal drainage system there's hardly any that

04:44exists and one that exists still you know earlier guru gram was known for its fields and and that's

04:50where the water recharge is to happen so every time it rained a little extra of course these canals and

04:55these channels and uh and these drains actually took it to to yamuna uh for sahibi and then yamuna but

05:02there was also porous water recharge that happened now with so much of concretization that has taken

05:07place which has anyway blocked the natural flow or the drainage flow of water of rain water more so but

05:14also has stopped water to from entering uh the ground and and therefore it actually stands still

05:20and that's the reason why you actually see venice looking situation in times of monsoon uh mr ja one

05:26of the interesting things that i'm seeing when there are so many voices around this issue i'm seeing that

05:32that a lot of people are pointing fingers at the bjp now you yourself said that uh the topography is as

05:38such that when when you have the arawali ridge at the south of gurugram from where the water actually

05:44goes down to the nazavkar jean uh or the nala you know earlier we had this natural drainage system where

05:52we had catchment areas around the city and then the water would naturally go to the jean but now we have

06:00a lot of urbanization rapid urbanization but my question to you is that this urbanization i'm not

06:06trying to politicize the issue definitely bjp needs to be pulled accountable in this because it's been

06:12in power for over a decade but my question to you is that all of this rapid urbanization that we're

06:17talking about it happened between 1980s to 2010s then is it fair that we are only you know pointing

06:24fingers at the bjp and not holding congress accountable because they are the two parts of you're

06:30absolutely right uh you know so one is you're absolutely right uh but at the same time and therefore

06:35there are two things that is very very important one one is historical uh uh urbanization that has

06:41taken place because as i said the first master plan said one shouldn't gurugram should not urbanize and

06:46not urbanize at this scale in that sense and that urbanization has been across political parties

06:52irrespective of which political party came to power uh that urbanization has continued that started as i

06:57said as the congress was in power is when manisar is when the martu suzuki plant uh was actually set up

07:05and since after that is when we've seen subsequent uh more developments so-called developments and

07:11urbanization that has taken place so so for for sure urbanization or auction of land or the loot of

07:17natural resource and mindless development slash redevelopment of gurugram that has taken place

07:24is is party politics agnostic but at the same time if you look at you know governance governance is not

07:32only historical governance is also immediate government is the present day governance as in

07:38you know nobody would remember what delhi looked like two years ago when when it flooded and then

07:44arvin cage liwal was the chief minister if he was to be blamed in 2023 and 2024 or perhaps more in 2020

07:51because there was an unprecedented rain in 2023 as well similarly rekhagutta who is the current

07:56day cm has to be blamed so you know when you when when it's a governance is a continual continuous

08:04process it's not something that you do 20 years ago and fall asleep you have to really evolve yourself

08:10based on the herbal load the population load the waste load like for example if the current

08:16municipality is not taking care of the garbage or the municipal waste it is the current day municipal

08:22commissioner or the political dispensation that has to be held accountable and not uh uh pandit neheru

08:29in that sense or indira gandhi or rajiv gandhi or anyone or manmohan singh in that sense so

08:33governance is an is an everyday affair it's a continuous affair it's not something that is locked

08:38in history but indeed urbanization and this is not just applicable to gurugram uh gurugram in that sense

08:45the same thing as we look at today if himachal is flooded uh himachal actually has has has a congress

08:52government and the same kind of uh disaster is taking place uh in uttarakhand which is actually bjp

08:58government and then punjab uh you know houses have have have completely gone inundated and that's

09:05party government so so therefore it's a it's a party politics agnostic and it's a it's a climate change

09:12it's an era where we're looking at intensity and frequency of climate change has increased and people

09:18in power irrespective of their political ideology and the color of their flag they don't care and

09:24they haven't cared or they haven't even taken into account uh of the the new reality or the new normal

09:31for climate change and that's the reason why you see these these events which is very easy to pass

09:37as climate event but indeed their climate event but their effect the reason why they're happening and

09:42the reason why they're happening so aggressively and so violently uh and again and again is because

09:50of two things uh the man-made uh interventions and the lack of planning and governance uh in in

09:57conceptualizing and executing these these large-scale projects or townships including gurugram the way we

10:03are looking at it do we actually need so many buildings do we really need so many fancy roads someone

10:09someone you know i was doing a show yesterday on on another tv channel and and someone a bureaucrat said

10:14that a lot of times citizens get to see a flyover and they celebrate and clap for a flyover a drainage

10:21system is not visible and therefore nobody asks for it i don't think that's that's true and that could

10:27partially be true that you know the enigma of the the high-rise the visible the twinkling the shining

10:34but the the the backboard or the foundation of a city is its quality of water its quality of drainage

10:40system it's up its waste disposal system all of this is what composite together is what a city should

10:47be known for right and i think very rightly said i think a decade is a long time to be able to tackle

10:53all of these issues uh moving forward mr jai i want to point out uh to a decision which was taken by

10:59haryana government where on 18th of august they defined the definition of what constitutes a forest

11:05and there in one of the points it mentions that it needs to be 40 percent of canopy density now given

11:13the fact that arawali vegetation uh only receives very less rainfall i mean around 300 millimeter uh despite

11:21the fact that we have gurugram where only even after a little bit of rain we have all these water

11:26logging issues and all of that but arawali vegetation it receives very less rainfall if you

11:31go into the facts and then you cannot expect such a density to be able to declare a patch of land as

11:37a forest then don't you think that there is an issue here because otherwise you will go and say okay

11:43this does not constitute a forest and then so we are able to you know uh take it out absolutely heena so

11:49you know there's a lot there's a lot of opposition to that to that so-called definition of punjab uh and

11:55haryana uh government and right now this is also where we're looking at based on that one classification

12:01or new so-called definition there will be a lot of land grab because forest when you declare something

12:06a forest that also restrains both government and private uh leasing of land or buying of land or

12:12construction in the forest uh area and when you suddenly and that's where you know i i always say

12:18that there are two forms of corruption one indeed is transactional corruption that we always see

12:24which is where you pay money uh to break a law and the other form of corruption is collusion form of

12:29corruption when you change the law itself when you change the definition and you start saying that oh

12:34well this is not even a tree or this is not even a forest or perhaps this this is not even uh you know

12:40a human being in that sense uh uh uh likely speaking so indeed what we've seen is uh we've seen

12:48the laws the conservation laws the forest laws uh the here we're seeing the definition itself is

12:54changing and that's where that's the root cause of a lot of disasters that we are actually seeing in

12:59in our urban areas uh we've seen the same thing in chardham road project how without taking an

13:04environmental impact assessment without doing any environmental impact assessment that is required

13:09for a road more than 100 kilometers this was a 900 kilometer road but was split into 53 pieces

13:14uh so that they don't need to take uh an environmental clearance in that sense so

13:20we've seen these shortcuts a lot of that is done uh in the name of greater common good we actually see

13:26oh well this is for public this road that is being built or perhaps this forest that is being cleared

13:32we don't realize that all of the work that we did all the damage that we've done in the last 30 40 years

13:38is showing up as a result in climate events the frequency and intensity intensity of it already

13:45and whatever if you continue to do this it's only in the next 20 30 years that half of himalayas will

13:51be will be completely gone uh you know looking at gurgaon gurgaon might have a great skyline

13:58but if if if the if the is gone if our if our air quality is is done with if everyone right now the

14:05report says that you lose eight years of your life or eight and a half years of your life if

14:09you live in delhi ncr if the situation continues i'm sure in 10 years there'll be a report that will

14:15say that you are going to lose 30 years of your life and then there'll be a report if we still

14:19continue like this will be a report that that will say that you will die if you live in this city

14:23so if you are if you are imagining dead cities at the cost of being prosperous and pompous and fancy

14:30uh then god save us right and mr jah do you think that we need to take a legal

14:37route in this because mcd seems to be not doing anything every monsoon season we have the same

14:42situation in gurugram so do you think uh i would even ask you uh should supreme court also you know

14:49go ahead and take a slow motor cognizance because uh not to forget that in the stray dog issue there was

14:55no death in delhi still um you know major verdict was passed and then later on it was a state that's

15:00different matter but don't you think that in this particular case when people are dying of

15:04electrocution don't you think that the supreme court needs to take a slow motor cognizance of this

15:09see ideally uh it's not our space to comment on what should supreme court think is a slow motor

15:15appropriate case indeed one can comment that yes if stray dogs were such a menace why can't life taking

15:22highways and devastation work that you've actually done the government is doing but at the same time

15:27we need to remember that governance is not the responsibility of the courts of our country

15:31governance is at the end of the day the responsibility of the legislature and the executive

15:36in that sense uh but yes as in uh why not and why should it only take care and take sumoto why should

15:42supreme court only take sumoto cognizance of a rich person or a rich city it should take cognizance of also

15:49why did himachal get flooded why why hundreds of houses in manali uh got submerged in river bias or

15:56what happened in dharali where till date we don't even know how many people died other than the five

16:02that were reported on day one since after that there's not even a report of injury after such of such a big

16:08big disaster that took place so indeed uh it's high time that the courts uh come in but that's also very

16:15slightly dangerous to really allow courts of our country to enter into the mainstream realm of

16:22governance is very very risky in the long run i still want to talk about the accountability where

16:27does it lie i mean um i was reading uh one of the comments by an expert who said that there are so

16:34many agencies on ground that sometimes they dodge accountability and they evade their responsibility

16:39and just blame the other one that this does not come in our purview uh this uh this is not something

16:44that we take care of so do you think because i also you know earlier spoke about this issue in

16:49terms of defense sector that why can't we have a central agency so that people can go to that central

16:54agency and talk to them tell them their issues and we have one person or one agency to be hold accountable

17:00absolutely so mcg here which is municipal council uh of gurgaon which is similar to what mcd is in delhi

17:08they are the ones that are supposed to be responsible for governance indeed in cities like

17:12this when you have population which goes into 10 million and 20 million both and talk about delhi

17:17uh and gurgaon and also the fact that gurgaon faridabad uh noida delhi all of that also is the is the

17:23composite ncr in that sense or uh and therefore there's greater retention both media and and policy

17:31attention that is there uh you know we've been saying a lot of times that we need to have a regional plan

17:36and not the political boundary plan because you know if at the end of the day delhi's air has to

17:41be improved it has to be done together it cannot just be delhi's air it also has to be gurgaon's air

17:48air and noida's air similarly when you look at a watershed approach uh at the end of the day

17:53you know we are talking about the entire drainage of arawali and arawali that starts uh you know in in

17:59in in gujarat uh ahmedabad and then the last point the tip of it is is actually yamuna uh which is in

18:08north delhi the the visible arawali range that we talk about and therefore it needs to have a shared

18:14understanding of conservation or understanding of arawali and its drainage system because we all

18:19might have created these lines and and divided people based on linguistics but linguistic cannot just

18:25be the only reason to divide states uh so therefore we do need a regional plan we need a regional plan

18:30for climate mitigation for heat wave mitigation and when i say climate it includes heat it includes uh

18:37drought it includes cloudburst and and flash floods but also looking at the modern day uh environmental

18:44challenge uh of waste segregation or waste disposal both at the at the local uh household level or at the

18:52municipal level and similarly the drainage system so i think uh at this moment indeed the first thing

18:59should be and we don't never hear it the mcg commissioner should be should be sacked the entire

19:05team that supposedly was actually desilting the drains or was responsible for taking care of the

19:12drainage system or of the waste system because all around gurgaon i live in gurgaon and in just two

19:18kilometer radius from where i live the entire area is a mess and i i live in somewhat uh a privileged

19:26uh neighborhood and still there are heaps of garbage you know it gets cleaned in the morning

19:31and uh at in the evening and by morning you see construction garbage and and factory waste and

19:37municipal waste dumped on the road and there's no accountability no one is held responsible for this so

19:43in this i think the heads need to roll heads need to roll in terms of the bureaucracy the bureaucrats

19:50our taxpayers money is going into something it's not as if you're asking for some charitable action by

19:56the state state is the count they are elected the person who actually sits at the helm the senior is

20:02officer perhaps who would be the mcg commissioner here and his entire team members they should be held

20:08responsible for this flood-like situation uh that that we actually seen in gurgaon and children getting

20:15illocuted you know people losing their car their livelihood uh and all in all of this it's it's an

20:22ecological issue and also an economic issue loss we're talking about one of the prosperous towns

20:27this is where as i earlier said fortune 500 companies are headquartered the india headquarters

20:32are in gurgaon and we have such a sad sinking state of affairs uh just final closing question mr jha what

20:39do we do when these officials who actually allot lands to people uh you know illegal construction

20:46happen when they are hand in glove with the land mafia i mean uh we have seen so many stories coming

20:52out of gurgaon where we see that farmers are being asked to sell their lands uh to the government in the

20:58garb of government acquisition and then builders uh get this particular land and then they build

21:04buildings which are worth crores of rupees uh so what do we do because yes mcg commissioner needs

21:10to be hold accountable he needs to be sacked immediately because this is the state of affairs

21:15of gurubram but do you think that police also needs to come in place in the picture uh to arrest all

21:22these people who are you know uh running these land mafias every stakeholder here as we all know

21:28what gurugram has become it's it's uh it's a uh reality mafia the the the property mafia runs the

21:37entire entire entire program in that sense where they are perhaps some builders would be more powerful

21:42and more and wealthier than the municipality in that sense and a lot of them have been able to become

21:49wealthier because they've changed the rules or there's been connivance with the authorities and

21:54in authority indeed there are several authorities there's a there's a clearance for construction

21:59authority there's a completion certificate authority there's a there's an environmental clearance authority

22:04and indeed there's police which is which is also a part of this entire network uh in that sense so

22:10this nexus has to break but that can only happen when we have a consolidated public uh you know outcry

22:17for this there's also a course of our country that needs to take cognizance that how are these

22:22buildings allowed and and i'm of a very very strong opinion that you know a lot of times we can't we

22:28can't say everything as fait accompli that's too late buildings have come up now what to do no to you

22:35know india is not something india doesn't have an expiry date of of 2050 or 2070 our our our great great

22:42grandchildren and our generations are going to live on live in this country for 400 500 or 4 000 years

22:48and for that that intergenerational wealth or intergenerational resource needs to be maintained

22:55and we have to be we have to be held accountable we have to be accountable ourselves and also hold

23:01accountable people who are taking away the the water uh the land the force not just from us in our own

23:08lifetime but from our our our coming generations we're going to lose because of this entire mafia

23:14that is going on right um thank you so much mr john i think uh we as people because journalists will

23:21keep on asking these questions and people like you who are working on ground will continue to give their

23:27insights but the issue is that it only happens in the month of monsoon and soon you know when the winter

23:32will arrive we'll start talking about pollution so i hope that we can uh we are able to break from this

23:37cycle and uh be able to actually bring about a reform thank you so much once again mr for speaking with

23:44thank you

'Gurugram MCG Commissioner Must Be Sacked': Environmentalist on Gurugram Flood Chaos | Exclusive

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