MUMBAI, July 6 -- Kishor Namdev Lokhande, a 50-year-old watchman, was attempting to reach his workplace on Saturday when he was swept away by the torrential flood waters at Mangulipada-Bhoidapada in Vasai East. After an extensive search, his body was recovered from the Madhuvan area early on Sunday. While Lokhande lost his life, fire brigade personnel and National Disaster Response Force jawans managed to save at least 222 people who were stuck in water-logged areas across the Vasai-Virar region. The pelting rains from Friday onwards completely disrupted life in the region till Sunday, with low-lying areas and several localities getting submerged. Nalasopara East and Virar's Global city in particular exposed the inadequacy of the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC). While the civic body claimed it had taken all the necessary steps to prevent waterlogging, BJP legislator Sneha Dubey-Pandit refuted this. "The monsoon has become a curse for Vasai-Virar residents," she said. "The entire city gets inundated after just four hours of rainfall. Roads turn into rivers, vehicles are washed away, and daily life comes to a standstill. This is a clear indication of administrative inaction and flawed planning." Politicians and residents pointed out that although VVCMC was established 16 years ago, no integrated underground sewage system had been constructed for the city and neither had a storm water drainage master plan been prepared. "Importantly, the Rs.12-crore flood control report prepared by environmental body NEERI and IIT-Bombay has not been implemented," said BJP leader Manoj Patil. "No steps have been taken to seek the high court's permission regarding the mangrove relocation required to unclog natural water channels. I had warned the commissioner last year that if the suggestions in the report were not implemented, Vasai-Virar would get submerged-which has happened." Patil added that drains too had not been unclogged. "Since January, we have been emphasising that every year VVCMC spends over Rs.20 crore in drain-cleaning but small gutters in societies are not cleaned, which is preventing water from flowing out of the city," he said. When contacted by HT, Sanjay Herwade, additional commissioner of VVCMC, claimed there were 1,30,000 chambers in Vasai-Virar that were cleaned twice a year. "This year too, we started the work from January. Even large drains were cleaned," he said. Refuting this, Dubey-Pandit alleged that the cleaning of smaller drains was not carried out due to corruption. "There should be an inquiry into the tendering and designing work of smaller drains in societies," she said. The MLA added that despite official assertions that several other projects to mitigate water-logging, such as road elevation projects and installation of flood gates, had been completed, nothing was done. Minister of state for urban development Madhuri Misal said that the government had directed that the desilting works be investigated and a report submitted within eight days. She also announced that a full-time city engineer would be appointed in the VVCMC within 15 days. Ajeev Patil, the mayor of Vasai-Virar, pointed out that the region had received over 170 mm of rainfall on Saturday between 8 am and 4 pm, which caused the waterlogging in over 105 areas. "Many floodgates were not opened by farmers," he said. Residents said that over 70% of Vasai, Nalasopara and Virar East was either forest, tribal land or a green zone but over the years illegal buildings had sprung up due to a civic official-land mafia nexus that cheated or lured tribals and farmers to surrender their lands for unauthorised construction. "Across Vasai, Nalasopara and Virar, unauthorised buildings have mushroomed haphazardly," said Kailash Patil, leader of the tribal organisation Agri Sena . VVCMC commissioner B Prithviraj said, "I have ordered officials to pinpoint the specific causes of waterlogging and find solutions."...