Despite a blanket ban on open-trench digging of roads in the monsoon season, South Delhi Municipal Corporation councillors say Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, has been carrying out open digging of roads in the city to lay down telecom wires.
‘Reliance has dug up the roads in my ward. I just received complaints from residents of my ward that the digging work is still going on,’ said Tilotima Chaudhary, raising the matter in the standing committee of the civic body on Tuesday. Chaudhary alleged that several areas in Dabri, Vaishali, Raghu Nagar, Dashrath Puri, and Durga Park have been dug up by the company. The councillor of neighbouring Mahavir Enclave ward, Sudeshwati also complained about digging work in her area.
Reacting to the complaints, engineer-in-chief of South DMC, Ravidas, informed the standing committee that any type of digging work has been banned in the area during the monsoon months (June to September). He further informed that the permission to dig the roads was given before the monsoon season, but the permission is being misused by the company. Chairman of the standing committee Rajesh Gehlot directed the officers of the enforcement wing to confiscate the company’s machines.