“Created a chimera of free water”: Delhi L-G addresses Kejriwal in an open letter over water issues

In an open letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena of Delhi expressed his concerns about the water issues facing the nation’s capital, which he said had “exacerbated over the last decade.”

 

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in relation to the Delhi liquor policy case, and he is now being held under judicial custody at Tihar Jail.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) administration was sharply criticized by the lieutenant governor, who also emphasized the party’s incompetence and delay in dealing with the problem of water shortage over the previous 10 years.

The L-G attacked Atishi, the minister of water resources for Delhi, charging that she was pursuing “narrow and partisan political goals” by exploiting the death of a lady in Shahdara, East Delhi. The L-G said in his open letter, “Atishi has ironically indicted her own government of more than 09 years, having highlighted the inadequate supply of water as the cause behind the incident.” Her message does, in fact, constitute a first acknowledgment of guilt about her delay, inefficiency, and almost ten years of inactivity.

The lieutenant governor chastised Atishi for disparaging the chief secretary, the chief executive officer of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), and the department heads of finance and urban development.

“Almost now, it has become the norm for your ministers to hold officers accountable for their own shortcomings, whether in the areas of health, hospitals, sanitation, education, or water supply,” the L-G said.

He went on, “I wish she had shown the maturity and restraint that are expected of a person holding high office.”

 

The economic assessment presented by Atishi, which the Delhi L-G referenced, showed that the water treatment capacity increased by a meager 4.4 percent during the previous ten years, from 906 MGD to 946 MGD.

In the same time frame, the city’s population increased dramatically by 15%. The total amount of water supply shortage is around 290 MGD. Another huge exaggeration, he said, is that 120 MGD of the water provided comes from groundwater exploitation.

“I’m sure you know that five of the sixteen Ranney wells aren’t working. Similar to this, a significant portion of tubewells are also broken, the L-G continued.

A frequent critic of the AAP administration, Saxena poked fun at the Chief Minister’s pledge to “transform Delhi into Singapore.” It would be instructive to learn that, in Singapore, the percentage of “unaccounted for water” is just 5%, whereas in Delhi, it is 58%. Even other Indian cities, such as Pune (35%), Chennai (35%), and Mumbai (27%), do far better than Delhi.

 

The total of water leaks caused by transmission and distribution losses, water theft, and unpaid bills is known as unaccounted for water.

Out of the 2.5 crore people living in the city, the L-G also noted that over two crore are “deprived of drinking water supply in varying degrees, especially in unauthorised colonies, slum clusters and to a lesser extent, even in organised developed colonies.”

“You and your ministers invented the phantom of free water instead of correcting the unsatisfactory water supply. You and your ministers have turned deceiving people into an art form, according to L-G Saxena.

In response to Saxena’s open letter, Atishi retaliated, accusing him of being the reason for the suspension of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) operations. Although the minister acknowledged that the L-G’s letter “may be intended for optics,” it is certain that the water issue was manufactured. Citing directives, she said that “a conspiracy that stopped the release of funds to the Delhi Jal Board” was the reason why things could not get off the ground.

A few days ago, the Delhi water minister wrote to the L-G requesting that he suspend the CEO of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in light of the death of a lady in the northeastern Delhi neighborhood of Farsh Bazar who had gotten into a fight with her neighbor about using a shared faucet to get water.

“Initiate an independent inquiry into the acts of omission and commission of the chief secretary, as well as officers of the finance department, urban development department, and DJB,” Atishi pleaded with Saxena in the message.

A few days after their correspondence, Saxena sent an eloquent open letter to Kejriwal, who is incarcerated in Tihar prison following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering related to the now-closed Delhi excise policy fraud case.