Chandigarh, Jan 29 Amid the controversy over the Yamuna river in Delhi is “poisonous”, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Wednesday drank water from the river near the Delhi border and slammed AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal for “spreading lies”.
"I drank the water of the holy Yamuna on the border of Haryana without any hesitation. Kejriwal has blatantly lied. Even I'm having relatives in Delhi. The AAP convener should immediately tender an apology," the Haryana Chief Minister wrote on X.
Meanwhile, state Revenue and Disaster Management Minister said the government has taken a strong cognisance of the statement of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal regarding Delhi's water supply and filed a case against him in the Sonipat court under the Disaster Management Act.
Calling Kejriwal's statement absurd and misleading, Goel told the media that the Election Commission of India should take cognisance of such baseless statements.
"Kejriwal has done cheap politics by making such allegations on Haryana causing the state government to take legal action," he said.
He said the water supplied to Delhi is the same water consumed by the President, the Prime Minister, and Union Ministers.
He accused Kejriwal of spreading fear not only among Delhi’s people but also among Haryana's citizens with his false claims.
A day earlier, Chief Minister Saini said the statement of poisonous water made by Kejriwal "is a political stunt by the Aam Aadmi Party aimed at influencing voters in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections and deflecting attention from its own failures".
He said the issue has been raised with the Election Commission of India.
"Ensuring a reliable water supply to the national capital is a collective responsibility, which Haryana is fulfilling diligently and without any shortcomings,” he said.
Exposing the failure of the Delhi government, the Chief Minister said in 2021 Delhi filed a petition to which the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) responded.
"The CPCB’s reply highlighted the issue of ammonia nitrogen in the Wazirabad pond and mentioned that there is a water treatment plant in Agra capable of treating water with ammonia levels up to 24 mg/l. However, the Delhi government has not taken any steps to upgrade the Wazirabad plant. As a result, the people of Delhi are still forced to consume contaminated water, while Arvind Kejriwal is now blaming Haryana to cover up his own failures,” he explained.
He said Delhi receives its drinking water supply of 1,049 cusecs at Munak from the waters of the Yamuna and Ravi-Beas rivers.
“Haryana is consistently supplying this water to Delhi through two canals: The Carrier Line Channel (CLC) and the Delhi Branch. Since the commissioning of the Carrier Line Channel in 2014, Haryana has not supplied any water to Delhi through drains or directly from the Yamuna River; instead, clean water is being supplied exclusively through the canal system of CLC and Delhi Branch.”
He assured the Haryana government is committed to ensuring the purity and continuous supply of water to Delhi.
The Chief Minister said in a statement that earlier, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) tested the water from Yamunanagar (Haryana) to Wazirabad (Delhi) and investigated the primary causes of pollution.
The investigation revealed that dirty water is being illegally discharged between Palla and Wazirabad.
In addition, the accumulation of sediment in the Wazirabad pond is causing an increase in ammonia nitrogen levels.
However, the Delhi government has not taken any action on the CPCB's report since 2021.
Neither has the illegal discharge of polluted water between Palla and Wazirabad been halted nor has any effort been made to clean the Wazirabad pond.
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