Long Struggle with Waterlogging, Contaminated Water and Unplanned Growth: How Delhi's Kirari Constituency was Adopted and Misgoverned by Every Political Party?
Key Points:
The crisis worsened after 2014–15 due to rapid population growth without a drainage master plan. The ₹480 crore Sewerage Master Plan sanctioned in 2021 remains stalled, with incomplete sewer lines and allegations of abandoned work.
Residents claim MLAs rarely visited the area and failed to deliver development. Senior citizens say pension hike promises remain unfulfilled, while locals express frustration that both AAP and BJP governments have ignored their suffering.
After meeting residents, CM Rekha Gupta sanctioned fresh funds for trunk drains, including a ₹220–₹221 crore project announced in November 2025. The BJP government has set June 2026 as the deadline to resolve waterlogging.
Kirari Vidhan Sabha, one of the 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi, continues to suffer from a long term neglect from the administration and governance. The constituency lies in the North-West Delhi, and is home to more than 100 unauthorized colonies. Long standing unaddressed critical issues of no sewage and drainage outlet, water contamination problems, streets overflowing with dirty sewage water, numerous health and hygiene risks, and potholes in roads along with many other issues persist even now.
Decades Of Neglect In Unauthorized Colonies Of Kirari
Since the 1990s, many families of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar migrated here, and made Kirari their home. Originally an agricultural land, people built their homes here, eventually creating many colonies. However, the colonies of Kirari remain unauthorised even now, with Congress and AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) governing Delhi for a significant period of time. Recently, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) formed their government in Delhi on February 20, 2025, but the colonies remain unauthorised, with no major improvement in the conditions of the region.
NewsGram conducted an extensive ground coverage of the region on February 13, 2026, covering areas like Mubarakpur Dabas, Surat Vihar, Sharma Enclave, and Vidya Pati Nagar among others. This news article highlights the voices of the residents of Kirari, who feel that despite them casting their votes and paying their taxes, their problems are unheard and unaddressed.
Rituraj Govind Jha from AAP was the MLA of Kirari for two consecutive terms, in 6th and 7th Delhi Legislative Assembly. His tenure was from 2015 to 2025, and Anil Jha Vats from AAP became the MLA in the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections. Anil Jha was a party member of BJP previously, having switched to AAP before the 2025 Delhi elections.
The severe infrastructure collapse dates back to roughly 2014–2015. As population density surged in colonies like Sharma Enclave, Prem Nagar, and Agar Nagar, the lack of a drainage master plan caused sewage to flood streets year-round. During the tenure of the AAP Delhi government, the crisis worsened. Despite promises and project inaugurations, residents faced "knee-deep sewage" annually.
₹480 Crore Sewer Plan: Sanctioned But Stalled
Following the change in government in early 2025, the new BJP administration, under CM Rekha Gupta has set a deadline of June 2026 to resolve the waterlogging, citing "11 years of neglect" by the previous administration. In 2021, the AAP government under CM Arvind Kejriwal sanctioned a massive ₹480 Crore Sewerage Master Plan. The ambitious goal was to lay 423 km of sewer lines. However, the project is currently described as stalled or delayed, with critics alleging that work was abandoned midway due to non-payment to contractors, leaving the network incomplete.
Rampal Singh, 72, a senior resident of Surat Vihar said that the aforementioned problems have occurred since the inception of the colony, and it has exacerbated in the previous 5-10 years. He also said the MCD does not come here to clear the waste, or remove the garbage. The sewage waste has been clogged with other garbage in the low lying areas of the region, and has become stagnant.
Speaking about the pressing atmospheric degradation, Rampal Singh said: “After 6 pm, insects and mosquitos will crowd the area, and it will become unbearable for us to stay here. It is February now, and we are able to sit here till about 4 or 5 pm. In Summers, the conditions will get even worse. Children cannot play outside, and they have to remain indoors so they don’t get sick.”
MLAs Accused of Ignoring the Constituency
Another senior resident of the area, Riazuddin, said that no work was done by Rituraj Govind Jha. He said: “Since Rituraj ji became the MLA of the area, he didn’t even visit the area at least once, to see what is going on here. We voted for him, but he didn’t feel the need to come here and see what we are going through. The Municipal Councillor came once, when the waterlogging crisis rose to its extreme, and the residents forcefully took him around to show the deteriorating conditions. However, he didn’t visit the area after that.” It is to be noted that Ramesh Chand from AAP is the MCD Councillor for Kirari Ward, and Neela Kumari from BJP is the MCD Councillor for Prem Nagar ward.
Speaking about the one year term of Anil Jha, Riazuddin said that neither did he carry out any development work in the area nor made any efforts to visit and engage with the residents after winning the election. According to him, Jha even stated that he had won the elections by selling his own property and therefore would not be doing any work for anyone in the constituency.
Ahead of the Delhi elections 2025, while launching BJP Sankalpa Patra for Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 on January 17, 2025, the then BJP National President JP Nadda said: “In Delhi, the old age pension for senior citizens aged 60 to 70 years will be raised from ₹2,000 to ₹2,500 per month. For senior citizens above the age of 70, the pension will be increased to ₹3,000.”
Pension Hike Promises By BJP Before Elections Yet to Materialise
However, senior citizens in Kirari are feeling neglected, particularly regarding the Delhi Old Age Assistance Scheme. Munni Lal Sharma, an elderly resident, expressed deep disappointment over broken election promises. "Before the election, the BJP government promised to increase our pension by ₹500, taking it from ₹2,500 to ₹3,000. But they never increased it," Sharma stated. He added that the residents are tired of the political blame game, saying, "Whether it is AAP or BJP, every government has only given us suffering."
When asked what he would say to Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Sharma highlighted how the system ignores uneducated citizens. "All we want is for the problems of the elderly to be solved, but no one listens," he said. He described the helpless situation seniors face at government offices: "When we go to complain, officials tell us to 'bring it in writing.' We are not educated people; where are we supposed to get an application written?"
Voices from Mubarakpur Dabas, Sharma Enclave and Beyond
The residents of the areas of Mubarakpur Dabas also complained of water contamination issues, stating that the water supplied from the supply lines is dirty and foul smelling. Residents have to purchase RO water from water suppliers for cooking and consumption purposes. They also flagged the problems caused to children due to unhygienic conditions prevalent all around.
Ramesh Kumar, also known as Neetu, a long-time resident of Sharma Enclave, Kirari, provided a critical breakdown of why Kirari is drowning, pointing to a historical disconnect between water supply and water disposal.
Reflecting on the 10-year tenure of former MLA Rituraj Govind Jha, Kumar dismissed the visible infrastructure work as ineffective. "You can see for yourself that no work has been done," he stated. He specifically targeted the sewer lines laid during the previous administration, labelling them a "failure" and a "waste of the government's money" because they were never made functional, leaving the water stagnation issue unresolved despite a decade of governance.
Neetu offered a crucial insight into how the crisis began. He acknowledged that during Anil Jha’s earlier term (as a BJP MLA), a struggle was waged to bring pipeline water supply to Kirari, replacing water tankers. However, a fatal planning error occurred: "Water supply was brought in, but no route was created for the water to go out." Without an exit drainage system, the wastewater began accumulating in the low-lying areas behind the colonies.
The situation escalated into a humanitarian crisis. Neetu recalled tragic incidents where children drowned in the deep, accumulated water in open plots. In response, the government decided to fill and cover this low-lying land to prevent further deaths. However, this reactionary measure backfired structurally: "They covered the land, but where will the water go now?" With the natural catchment area filled in and no alternative drain constructed, the water that used to pool in the open fields is now forced back into the colony streets, keeping residents trapped in sewage.
Recently, a group of residents from Sharma Enclave, including Ramesh Kumar (Neetu), met with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to voice these grievances directly. During the meeting, the residents were given firm assurances that the critical issue of sewage outlets, the root cause of the waterlogging, would be fully resolved by June 2026. To achieve this, the new BJP state government has sanctioned fresh funds for massive trunk drain projects, including a new drain along the railway line and the Kirari-Rithala drain. These projects aim to finally connect Kirari’s stuck sewage lines to a proper outlet, promising to drain the stagnant water that has plagued the colonies for years.
In November 2025, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced a ₹220–₹221 crore drainage project under the city’s new Drainage Master Plan to address chronic waterlogging in Kirari. The plan included constructing a 4.5 km stormwater drain along the railway line from Mundka Halt to Najafgarh, along with a supplementary drain on the Delhi–Bhatinda railway stretch, aiming to provide long-term relief to flood-prone colonies that face severe waterlogging during the monsoon season.
Ultimately, the crisis in Kirari is not the fault of a single term or leader, but the result of severe administrative neglect spanning over 25 to 30 years. From the Congress era to the long tenure of AAP, and now the BJP, political parties have governed Delhi while Kirari remained unauthorized and unplanned. As power shifted hands, the basic needs of the residents were consistently ignored, leaving them to live in inhuman conditions. While the new deadline of June 2026 offers a glimmer of hope, for the people of Kirari, it is another wait in a decades-long struggle for dignity and basic development.
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