New Delhi, Jul 15 (IANS): Delhi Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on Saturday wrote a letter to Lt Governor V.K. Saxena, demanding action against Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar, and Irrigation and Flood Control Secretary Ashish Kundra. 

Bhardwaj alleged the officials deliberately ignored the instructions given by him as well as his cabinet colleague and another Delhi minister, Atishi.

"We have a WhatsApp group named 'Delhi Flood Control - 2023' in which two Ministers, CS Naresh Kumar, Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar, Principal Secretary (I&FC) Ashish Kundra, DMs of six affected districts and other important officials are members. All officers and ministers communicate throughout the day on this WhatsApp group.

"At 11.09 p.m. on July 13, I sent a message to Ashwani Kumar (Divisional Commissioner) on the group explaining the need to call NDRF at the earliest. Atishi also suggested calling them. In spite of this, Ashish Kundra and Ashwani Kumar did not follow the directions," read his letter.

The letter further stated that the junior officials of the MCD had no idea about the catchment area of collapsed regulator.

Bhardwaj said that he asked Ashwani Kumar to send the Chief Engineer of MCD to the site but even this direction was ignored.

Later, Atishi asked Ashwani and Ashish Kundra to take help from the Army Engineers' Regiment or NDRF.

Bhardwaj alleged that all these messages were being read by CS Naresh Kumar but he conveniently chose to ignore them.

Bhardwaj has further alleged in the letter that one DM also tried to mislead by claiming that she was at the site but "she was bluffing".

"These are clearly acts of criminal conspiracy against the people of Delhi. These acts are not acts of negligence; these acts appear to be deliberate acts to allow the flooding of sensitive VIP areas of Lutyen's Delhi. This was a conspiracy to embarrass the Supreme Court of India. Therefore I urge you to take action against these officers," his letter read.