Tag: Delhi Jal Board

  • Delhi Jal Board: Delhi L-G pens open letter to CM Kejriwal, slams govt over water scarcity issues

    Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has written an open letter to jailed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, claiming the death of a woman in a fight over fetching water reflects the government’s failure and Water Minister Atishi used the incident for “narrow political goals”. Atishi hit back at Saxena over the open letter, holding him responsible for the stoppage of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) works.

    The Delhi water minister had a few days ago written to the L-G, asking him to suspend the CEO of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) after a woman was killed following a quarrel with her neighbour over fetching water from a common tap in the Farsh Bazar area of northeast Delhi.

    In the note, Atishi urged Saxena to “institute an independent enquiry into the acts of omission and commission of the chief secretary, as well as officers of the finance department, urban development department and DJB”. Days after the communication, Saxena penned a strongly worded open letter to Kejriwal, currently lodged in Tihar jail after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy scam case.

    “I was deeply distressed at the insensitive communication from the Minister for Water… Atishi on Sunday. While I was yet to receive the letter, it characteristically found its way on various social and mainstream media platforms, the moment it was signed. She has chosen to use the unfortunate death of a woman in East Delhi for narrow and partisan political goals,” he charged.

    Having underlined the inadequate supply of water as the cause behind the incident, Atishi has ironically indicted her own government of more than nine years, the L-G said. “Her note indeed is a prima facie admission of guilt, inaction and inefficiency over the past almost 10 years,” he said in the letter. Asserting that this “unfortunate incident (woman’s death) is not the only such case of its kind in the context of Delhi”, he said many such incidents over water scarcity have happened in the past primarily due to the failure of the government.

    “Such instances have become a recurrent phenomenon year after year and have been widely reported in media over the last 10 years. I am enclosing a snapshot of some news clippings, starting 2017 for illustration. Water woes in the capital, especially in settlements where the poor live, have exacerbated over the last decade.

    “Your minister’s hasty missive to me is an admission of these failures and defaults of performance of your government and amount to facile attempts at shrugging responsibility off, a complex problem,” he added.

    Saxena cited official figures to highlight his points. He cited The Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled in the recent Budget Session of the Delhi Assembly.

    “Over the last decade, water treatment capacity grew marginally from 906 MGD to 946 MGD, barely a 4.4 per cent increase. During the same period, the population of the city has grown significantly by 15 per cent.

    “The overall shortfall in water supply amounts to about 290 MGD. Of the total water being supplied, 120 MGD comes from groundwater extraction, which is also a gross exaggeration. I am sure that you are aware that of the 16 Ranney wells, five are non-functional. Similarly, a large number of tubewells are also dysfunctional,” he added.

    The percentage of “unaccounted for water” — a sum of water leakages by way of transmission and distribution losses, water theft and non-payment of dues — saw a sharp increase from 45 per cent in 2015 to 58 per cent in 2022-2023, the L-G said.

    “By implication, in 2015, of the 906 MGD of water treated, only 498 MGD was accounted for. In 2022-23, of the 946 MGD treated, barely 397 MGD is accounted for. Accordingly, over the last decade, net water availability has decreased by more than 100 MGD due to the criminal neglect by your Government,” Saxena added.

    He said that of the about 2.5 crore people in the city, more than two crore are deprived of drinking water supply in varying degrees, especially in unauthorized colonies, slum clusters and to a lesser extent, even in organized developed colonies.

    “It simply points to the fact that there has been no effort whatsoever during the last ten years for plugging the leaks and we seem to be spending thousands of crores in pumping water into a leaking bucket,” the L-G said.

    Hitting back at Saxena, Atishi held him responsible for stopping DJB’s works

    The L-G encouraged the officers who obstructed work and did not take any action against them despite repeated requests, the Delhi water minister alleged.

  • Arvind Kejriwal: Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest: AAP faces leadership crisis ahead of Lok Sabha election

    New Delhi: The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged excise policy scam case has posed a leadership crisis question before the AAP as well as the Delhi government, with his wife Sunita Kejriwal and cabinet ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj being talked about as his possible replacement. The challenge before the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) now is to come up with a worthy leader who could handle both the party and its government in Delhi in absence of Kejriwal.

    However, it’s indeed a big task for the AAP leadership to come up with a name of a leader that at least comes closer to Kejriwal’s stature as convener of the party since its inception in 2012 and holding Delhi Chief Minister’s post for three terms spanning nearly a decade.

    The urgency of the task becomes even more pressing as the AAP is gearing up to contest the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Assam and Haryana in which Kejriwal was to be a key campaigner of the party. Apart from Sunita Kejriwal, a former IRS officer, the names of AAP government ministers Atishi and Bharadwaj too are taking rounds for the post of Delhi chief minister.

    Atishi, who holds the maximum number of portfolios in the Delhi government, including education, finance, PWD, revenue and services, is considered close to Arvind Kejriwal.

    She is also a frontline spokesperson of the party defending the AAP government and Kejriwal, and attacking the BJP in her regular press conferences and appearances on news channels. Likewise, Bharadwaj is also a prominent member of the Delhi Cabinet holding several important portfolios including health and urban development. He, too, is a well known face of the party, often engaged in defending the party and its leaders and counter-attacking the BJP and its government at the Centre on a range of governance-related and political issues.

    However, in December last year, the AAP launched a signature campaign ‘Mai Bhi Kejriwal’, asking people whether he should resign as Delhi chief minister or run the government from jail if arrested.

    During the campaign, the AAP supremo also met party MLAs and municipal corporation councilors in Delhi for their feedback on the issue.

    Bharadwaj recently told reporters in a press conference, “Nearly 90 per cent of people in this exercise opined that Kejriwal has the mandate of Delhi and he has been elected and hence, only he would run the government in Delhi no matter from where.”

    The AAP leadership also has to find a replacement of Kejriwal to head the party that runs governments in Delhi and Punjab besides having MLAs in Gujarat and Goa as well.

    In this area also, the options of the party are rather limited.

    Apart from Sunita Kejriwal, name of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Atishi too are taking rounds as leaders who could hold the responsibility of new AAP national convener.

  • ‘Kejriwal has done PhD in speaking lies’: Anil Vij hits out at AAP over water sharing row

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Minister Anil Vij on Monday dismissed as baseless the Delhi government’s charge that his state was withholding the national capital’s share of 120 million gallons of water a day and alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had “done a Ph.D in speaking lies”.

    Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice chairman Raghav Chadha on Sunday had said that the water utility has moved the Supreme Court, seeking directions to Haryana to release the capital’s legitimate share of water.

    He claimed that Haryana has been withholding 120 million gallons of water a day (MGD) meant for Delhi and that the raw water being discharged into the Yamuna river by the neighbouring state is at an “all-time low”.

    When asked about the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s claims, Haryana Home Minister Vij told reporters that “Kejriwal (the Delhi chief minister) has done a Ph.D in speaking lies”.

    “First, they the (AAP government) presented false figures during Covid second wave to procure oxygen, much above the requirement, and now Kejriwal is doing the same on the water issue to hide his own failures. They are levelling baseless allegations,” he said.

    Haryana is continuously providing 1,049 cusecs of water at Munak through its canal system to Delhi, Vij said and accused the AAP dispensation of making baseless allegations against Haryana “by misleading the people of Delhi to cover up their own mismanagement”.

    He admitted that there is a water shortage due to delayed monsoon, but asserted that inspite of this, Haryana is giving Delhi its due share.

    “Even if there is water shortage, Haryana is taking the brunt, but giving Delhi its full share,” Vij said.

    The Haryana government had said on Sunday that there is less water in the Yamuna river due to delay in the arrival of monsoon and the AAP dispensation’s mismanagement has led to water shortage in the national capital.

    Following DJB vice-chairman Chadha’s charge, the Haryana government, in a statement, also accused the AAP of indulging in a “false political rhetoric to hide its failure”.

    In response to a question on an incident on Sunday in which protesting farmers allegedly attacked Haryana Assembly Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa’s car in Sirsa, Vij said if anyone commits violence under the guise of agitation, action according to the aw will be taken against the offender.

    He said that everyone has the right to hold a protest in a peaceful manner, conduct processions and hold hunger strikes, but no one has a right to indulge in any kind of violent act.

    Regarding the Sirsa incident, Vij said that instructions have been given to the inspector general of police of Hisar range to collect information in this matter.

    Further action will be taken after complete information is received, he said.

    To a query on arrangements being made in case there is a third wave of Covid, Vij, who also holds the health portfolio, said that the state government is alert and has made full preparations.

    “In addition, we have learned from the gaps of the first and second wave of Covid and made arrangements for a possible third wave accordingly,” he said.

    There was shortage of oxygen during the second wave of Covid, but later instructions to set up oxygen plants in all civil hospitals of the state was issued so that the possible third wave can be dealt with efficiently, Vij said.

    Similarly, he said that deputy commissioners have been instructed to visit hospitals and check functioning of oxygen beds, ICU beds and ventilators and to take necessary measures if there is any shortage or if any equipment is not found fully functional.