Even though Mumbai’s municipal corporation claims to have completed more than 95% of the desilting work and removed more than 3.40 lakh cubic metre of silt from major nullahs (storm water drainage) the city came to a standstill on Friday.

This naturally gave rise to politics. The Congress blamed ruling  Shiv Sena and the Sena blamed the rains while the Mumbai citizen suffers.

Machinery of BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation)has completely failed since BJP came to power, says Congress' leader Sanjay Nirupam.

"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. 27 items were supposed to be distributed to schools open in Mumbai. Not one item has been distributed. The BMC didn't do its job.,” he said.

However, Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant said "we don't control the rains. It's so bad, we cannot do anything."

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Like every year the BMC officials had claimed that the city was ready for heavy monsoon rains.

The city’s disaster management team has also been deployed to tackle monsoon-related problems.

But Mumbaikars went through the same old problems of monsoon season. Traffic jams, water-logged drains and damaged buildings were all seen on Friday. Mumbai city recorded around 170 mm and suburbs averaged around 155 mm rainfall till Friday morning.

Every monsoon brings heaps of problems for this coastal city due to its ancient infrastructure. The city’s 70-year-old sewage drainage system was designed for a certain density of population and disciplined citizens as well as civic authorities. These woes are compounded by improper proper waste management system that leads to clogging of drains and rivulets that discharge water into the sea.

Rise in encroachments, broken retaining walls and throwing of trash in nullahs have increased over the years.  “We have been carrying out desilting work on a regular basis, but haven’t been able to stop people from throwing waste in the nullahs,” says a civic official.