Public Works Department officials have said 36 nozzles worth more than ₹10 lakh have been stolen from newly installed fountains outside Bharat Mandapam and at Delhi Gate during G20 Summit, PTI reported Tuesday.
The matter came to light when the agency tasked with their maintenance filed an FIR with Delhi police, the PWD officials said.
“Twenty-four nozzles have been stolen from fountains outside the Bharat Mandapam while 12 nozzles from the fountain at Delhi Gate. The theft happened after the culmination of the G20 Summit,” PTI quoted a PWD official as saying.
The stainless steel nozzles are priced at ₹4,000 each, the official added.
The PWD official said the cameras installed by the maintenance agency cover only the Gates 6 and 7 of Bharat Mandapam.
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“There are also cameras installed by the Delhi Police but we do not know whether they are functional. The nozzles are expensive and we are trying to find alternatives to them,” PTI reported the official as saying.
The PWD official further said the nozzles stolen from Delhi Gate fountains have been replaced with plastic ones, but those missing from outside Bharat Mandapam can only be fitted with stainless steel as they are from large fountains.
The official said the department has deployed security guards around important places to ensure security of the assets created during G20 Summit.”However, it is not possible … to ensure that they are not stolen since they are only a handful in number. Also, it is not possible for the department to deploy security guards everywhere,” he added.
Theft of its properties is a problem that PWD has been grappling with for the past many years, without much solution. The department had filed a police complaint in early September regarding the theft of wires and some nozzles from Delhi Gate.
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Updated: 10 Oct 2023, 09:35 PM IST