New Delhi, July 30 - As the national capital continues to cope with the after-effects of heavy showers and civic mismanagement, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) says five decades of bad planning were responsible for a city of 17 million people coming to a virtual standstill on that rained out Monday three days ago. And it says it was high time that the buck stopped somewhere.

Advocating that responsibility be fixed on authorities, the nodal agency for managing disasters in the country feels that the situation worsens every year.

'Fifty years of bad planning cannot be rectified in one day,' NDMA Vice Chairman General N.C. Vij told IANS.

'Yes, it was a tough day for Delhi. Urban flooding is a real worry in big cities. Look at our sewer systems,' he said, referring to the deluge that led to many areas in the city being submerged, key underpasses turning to swimming pools, roads caving in and traffic lights blinking out.

Delhi received 126 mm of rainfall Monday evening. Millions of Delhiites were trapped on the streets in the hours of utter chaos that followed, exposing the government claim that the capital will become a world class city before next year's Commonwealth Games. The overflowing drains, waterlogging and subsequent traffic standstill were a major embarrassment for both the Delhi government and the civic agencies, who blamed each other.

Despite a sum of Rs.200 million being spent for desilting 1,500 drains across the city ahead of the monsoon, authorities were hard pressed for an explanation.

'The problem is civic authorities cleaned the drain and put the soil and garbage on its side.