Delhi water crisis: AAP demands police protection for pipelines; BJP blames Arvind Kejriwal

Amid a crippling water crisis in the national capital, Delhi water minister Atishi has written a letter to the city’s police demanding protection for its pipelines against potential sabotage attempts.

Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday launched a protest against the AAP government over paucity of water.

Atishi claimed Delhi Jal Board’s patrolling team found signs of sabotage of pipelines at several spots.

In a letter to Delhi police commissioner Sanjay Arora, Atishi wrote: “I am writing to request deployment of police personnel to patrol and protect our major pipelines for the next 15 days to stop miscreants or people with ulterior motives from tampering water pipelines which have now become Delhi’s lifelines. At this juncture any foul play and sabotage will worsen the already difficult water shortage being faced by the people of Delhi.”

She claimed the DJB teams found that water supply pipelines were damaged at some places.

“Yesterday our ground patrolling team reported a major leakage in our South Delhi Rising Mains, the main water pipeline that carries water from Sonia Vihar WTP) to South Delhi. This was near the DTL sub station in Garhi Medhu. Our patrolling team found that several large 375 mm bolts and one 12 inch bolt had been cut from the pipeline causing the leakage. The fact that several large bolts had been cut seems to indicate foul play and sabotage,” she claimed.

She said a large quantity of water couldn’t be supplied to the people of Delhi, exacerbating the crisis.

Atishi demanded that the police protect Delhi’s major pipelines for the next 15 days.

“I am writing to request deployment of police personnel to patrol and protect our major pipelines for the next 15 days. This would be very important for putting a stop to miscreants or people with ulterior motives from tampering with our water pipelines which have now become Delhi’s lifelines. At this juncture any foul play and sabotage will worsen the already difficult water shortage being faced by the people of Delhi,” she added.

Meanwhile, BJP MP from West Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat and other party workers held a protest in Najafgarh against the Delhi government.

“We have been receiving calls from Dwarka RWAs and they have been coming to meet us with complaints of water shortage. Private water tankers are costing them a lot of money and they are unable to avail government tankers… The pipes that I inspected today are broken and a lot of water is being wasted… The Delhi government is blaming other state governments for the water shortage whereas the problem lies within their department… I request Atishi not on humanitarian grounds, but as a minister in the Delhi government that she needs to take care of her department,” she said.

AAP MLAs today reached the house of union Jal Shakti minister, CR Patil, to request him to resolve the crisis.

“We wrote a letter to him yesterday. We tried to reach out to him through mail, SMS, and WhatsApp and asked for an appointment. Someone received our letter yesterday but when we came here today, we were told that he is not here at his residence. We don’t know what’s the truth. However, we want the Central government to intervene in this situation and give the responsibility of interstate coordination to CR Patil,” said AAP MLA Dilip Pandey.

Last week, Atishi appealed to Haryana to discharge additional water into the Yamuna river on humanitarian grounds. She claimed there was a shortage of 70 million gallons per day (MGD) in the national capital due to the scarcity of raw water.

The normal water production of around 1,002 MGD in Delhi on June 6 went down to 932 MGD on Friday because of a lack of raw water, she added.

BJP claims Arvind Kejriwal responsible for water crisis

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP government are responsible for the water crisis. He attributed the crisis to water theft and wastage.

BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said she is forced to pressure DJB officials for water tankers.

“Every single day I get a call from the constituency. I have to incessantly put pressure on officials of DJB to send tanker and make sure water is available to people. AAP doesn’t have the intent to work. In their rule of last 10 years, they have reduced the DJB of ₹600 crore profit to loss of 73,000 crore. The IMD had warned of heatwave in March itself, but they did nothing. No repair in infrastructure was made,” she claimed.