New Delhi woke up on Wednesday to a rare public apology from a top bureaucrat who said sorry on X for heavy waterlogging in the national capital’s VVIP zones that house ministers, judges and union secretaries.Within hours of being posted, the apology from Manoj Dwivedi, Chairman, New Delhi Municipal Council, became the talk of the town for it was rare.Never before has a bureaucrat responsible for a job said sorry for failing at that job.Official sources linked the development to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent nudge to bureaucracy to connect with the people on social media and be available.”The whole point is in being receptive and responsive,” said a source pointing to PM Modi’s recent meeting with union secretaries where he asked them to engage with the people they serve.Dwivedi may have taken the point when he said, “I sincerely apologise to everyone in the NDMC area who faced difficulties due to waterlogging instances on 25th August 2026. Usually we are able to clear the waterlogging within 15-20 minutes. But despite our best efforts in at least 3-4 areas water was fully drained out in more than an hour’s time.”The bureaucrat responsible for the commercial centres like Connaught Place, residential zones like Chanakyapuri, Jor Bagh, Golf Links, Netaji Nagar and key roads like Akbar Road, Ashoka Road, Rajpath and Tilak Marg then explained what the problem was.”There was more than 72 mm rainfall in less than 2 hours and this was quite unexpected. But this cannot be an excuse and we will have to strengthen our systems to deal with such situations in future. Various short-term and long-term measures will be made to make the entire NDMC area fully waterlogging free,” he said, promising to work to ensure that citizens do not face any inconvenience.Dwivedi did not stop at that. He even invited public suggestions on how to fix Delhi’s waterlogging problem.Any suggestions for improvement are welcome, said the officer, whose last posting was as Additional Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training under the PMO.