For once, the arrival of the monsoon in earnest in Delhi did not result in the usual photo of a bus submerged under the Minto Bridge near Connaught Place. Instead, there were videos galore of the grand roads of “Millennium City" turning into raging rivers. And the US-oriented residents of the multi-billion-rupee apartments flanking the major arterial roads of Gurugram must have truly felt they were in the same boat—if only metaphorically—with people in Texas.

But none of Gurugram’s well-heeled residents would have wanted their top-of-the-line Beemers and Mercs to gurgle to a standstill in the gushing, muddy waters of the Golf Course Road-River, just like their counterparts in Texas succumbed to the roiling swell of the Guadalupe River. The difference, of course, is that Guadalupe is actually a seasonal river, while the Golf Course Road has no business turning into one every time there is a serious monsoon downpour.

Opprobrium is being heaped mainly and predictably on the municipal authorities of Haryana’s most glamorous conurbation. Justifiably too, as civic amenities are definitely the responsibility of the municipal corporations and the politicians and bureaucrats who run them. If the drainage is woefully inadequate to deal with a proper heavy monsoon downpour, if there are no quick resolutions to flooded roads, basements, and ground floor flats, they certainly must be taken to task.

They are, after all, the ones who decide what infrastructure is needed, commission surveys, agree on where to put roads, flyovers, drainage, water pipes, electricity supplies, parking,........

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