NEW DELHI:
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ch. Anil Kumar said that due to the incompetence and inaction of the Arvind Government, Delhiites are facing severe water shortage. He said that the people of Delhi were being given insufficient quantity of 800 MGD (Millions of Gallons Per Day) water, though Delhi’s water requirement per day is 1380 MGD. He said that it was surprising that Delhi’s Water Minister had announced that on 28 April, 2022, DJB will supply 65MGD water more under the Summer Action Plan, but now he says that Delhi, on the contrary, is facing 70MGD shortage of water! He said that the fact that the Arvind Government has no roadmap to address Delhi’s water crisis has been exposed yet again, as severe water shortage has now become a norm, rather than an exception, at all times in Delhi.
Kumar said that in the name of ‘free water’, the Arvind Government was supplying non-potable water to the poor people, and out of the samples of such water collected for testing, 42 % has failed the quality test. He said that people are undergoing untold suffering with the mercury hitting record levels this summer, and water shortage compounding their plight. He said that when the water levels started receding at the Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla reservoirs, the Delhi Government should have written to the Haryana Government, requesting it to release more water for Delhi, but CM Arvind woke up only when the water levels receded to a critical point in these reservoirs, creating water shortage across Delhi. He said that when Congress was in power in 2013-2014, each person got 50 gallons of water, which has now come down to 45 gallons per person.
Kumar said that instead of taking effective steps to tackle the water shortage, the Arvind Government has been drumming up a ‘water scare’ in Delhi, to make an excuse for the water shortage. He said that people in unauthorised colonies, resettlement colonies and the slum areas are bearing the brunt of the water shortage, as they have been forced to depend on the tanker mafia, run by the Aam Aadmi Party leaders and legislators, for their water requirements by paying a high price.
Kumar said that despite the fact that Delhi has been facing water shortage for the past seven years, Chief Minister Arvind does not take any advance steps to tackle water shortage in summer, and he always uses such opportunities to take political mileage by blaming others for his own incompetence.
Kumar said that the DJB, which was running on profit during the Congress regime, has now been deeply caught in losses and corruption, though Chief Minister Arvind himself had headed the DJB, but now tries to shirk his responsibility for the water crisis, with the DJB battling debt to the tune of Rs 57,000 crore. He said that CM Arvind’s free water scheme was a flop show from the very beginning, as the Government had failed to fulfil even the bare minimum water requirement of the people.