Congress on Friday slammed the BJP-Shiv Sena government of Maharashtra for the chaos caused by the overnight heavy rains.
Congress’s Sanjay Nirupam blamed the BJP-SS led government by saying that Mumbai’s civic body, BMC (also run by Shiv Sena) was responsible for the misery caused to the city’s residents due to heavy rainfall.
He said, “It is one of the most corrupt organisations in the world. The functioning of the BMC has just collapsed. This failure is because of BJP and the Shiv Sena,” Nirupam said.
Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant responded, “We don’t control the rains. It’s so bad, we cannot do anything.”
Overnight heavy severely affected life in Mumbai with thousands of commuters are reported to be stranded and several low lying areas being reported to be completely waterlogged.
The city recorded around 170 mm of rainfall till Friday morning while its suburbs experienced around 155 mm rainfall.
The weather department’s forecast warns of heavy showers over the next 48 hours and a high tide of 4.60 metres around 2 in the afternoon on Friday.
All schools have been shut and the Railways have advised people to travel only if it’s necessary.
A Western Railway press release said, “Suburban services are affected due to heavy rains and water-logging in several areas in Mumbai Central and Matunga. It is advised to all that commuters may travel only in case of emergency.”
As tracks remain waterlogged, operations have been suspended on the Harbour line while trains are running only between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and the Kurla suburb on the busy Central line.
Almost 70-80 lakh people travel on Mumbai’s local trains, considered to be the city’s lifeline.