The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday said the national capital is facing a water shortage of nearly 40 per cent, and alleged that the Rekha Gupta-led government informed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that only 10–11 per cent of Delhi is affected by water scarcity.
AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “For a month, there has been chaos in Delhi over water. Today I read in newspapers that the PMO asked the Delhi Government how many areas are not receiving water, and it was stated that only 10 to 11 per cent of areas are affected. This is an outright lie. Nearly 30 to 40 per cent of Delhi’s areas are not receiving water. There is widespread distress, and even tankers are not reaching people.”
Demanding greater transparency, he said, “I want to ask the Delhi Water Minister to make public the list on the basis of which it was claimed that only 10 to 11 per cent of areas are affected. We can point out many more areas that were deliberately excluded from that list, because false information is being conveyed to the Prime Minister’s Office in order to protect the ministry.”
“The government should publicly release the names of those areas. There are several localities that appear to have been omitted while informing the PMO that water supply there is normal. This government is not only misleading the people of Delhi but also the Prime Minister’s Office,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the party staged a ‘matka-phod’ (clay pot smashing) protest outside the Delhi Jal Board office in Mayur Vihar Phase II over the issue. Raising slogans against the government, protesters said people across the city were struggling for every drop of water, while the chief minister and ministers remained confined to air-conditioned rooms.
AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar said the BJP’s “four-engine” government had failed to provide Delhi even as much water as a single engine could manage, and warned that if the crisis was not resolved soon, residents of Kondli would gherao minister Parvesh Verma’s residence.
