NEW DELHI: The Congress has jumped into the political slugfest over the ongoing water crisis in the city as its city unit has written to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) seeking a probe into Rs 17,575 crore alleged scam in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the party said on Thursday.
The Congress called the “scam” the primary reason behind the severe water shortage as it believes that “it is linked to water theft by tanker mafia.”
It also announced protests across 280 blocks in the city over the peculiar state of water supply. While it did not attack the AAP government for the crisis, the party said due to the blame game by Delhi government and BJP, the people are suffering.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Devender Yadav, in his letter to the CVC, pointed out that there has been a “significant uptick” in the volume of leakage of water in recent years, as indicated by Government-provided data, with the figures climbing from 42% in 2019-20 to 58.28% in 2022-23.
He said that this 16.28 % surge in the leakage of water over a span of three years is deeply worrisome, despite the fact that the DJB had made substantial spend from its budgetary allocation for the replacement and installation of supply lines to the tune of Rs 30 crore.
“Even if 10-20% leakages are justified due to transmission and distribution loss, the approximate loss of Rs 17,575 crore suffered by the DJB is much bigger,” the letter read.
“Delhi Congress has been raising the issue of tanker mafia operating in Delhi, and exploiting Delhi’s water resources for financial profit. The complicity of senior politicians from the ruling party at the Centre and in Delhi, along with colluding officials, cannot be overlooked, and the CVC should make a thorough and unbiased investigation in this matter, and FIR should be filed against the guilty,” it added.