Thackeray''s Sena takes credit for Mumbai bouncing back after deluge

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 30

Blaming the weather gods for Tuesday's deluge the Shiv Sena, which controls Mumbai's civic body, took credit for the city springing back to its feet in a day's time.

“Who will say Mumbai was totally flooded only yesterday? The flood waters have been pumped out and most of the city is dry today,” Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray told reporters at his residence this afternoon. He added that the priority of the Mumbai municipal corporation was to prevent epidemics in the city.

“The BMC will issue guidelines as specified by the World Health Organization so that medicines are distributed for preventing the spread of epidemics,” Thackeray added.

Messages emanating from the disaster control cell of the BMC were advising people to take doses of various medicines in order to avoid contracting leptospirosis.

Facing criticism for the flooding across Mumbai, Thackeray said the city gets flooded every year because it lies below the sea level. “We can spend crores of rupees but we cannot raise the city above sea level,” Thackeray said.

However, he added, the BMC did its best by de-silting the city's drains because of which the situation did not worsen beyond what was experienced.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Saamna said the city did not experience any major calamity from the flooding because of the civic body's preparedness.