NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, accusing him of “fraud” and cooking data on Delhi’s water quality for political dividends.
AAP said the Centre’s BIS report is biased provoking Paswan to make public the details of the report on water quality and details of samples collected from 11 houses from different parts of the city ranging from Janpath, Burari, Pitam Pura and Sarita Vihar.
The Morning Standard talked to the residents of some of the areas from which the samples were taken. “We complained about dirty water three months ago. It was green and smelling. Within a week the Delhi Jal Board solved our problem,” Roop Kishore a resident of Pitam Pura said.
Kishore who lives in a joint family works at a medical store owned by his elder brother added that he has been living in the same area for several years. However, it was the first time that such water had flowed in.
He is the resident of one of the 11 places from where the BIS took water samples. “I do not know why we are being pulled into political slug match,” he said.
Similarly, Deepak Kumar Roy of Burari from where two samples were taken said that no samples were collected from his house in the last three months since he moved into Siddhi Vinayak apartment.
Meanwhile, AAP local MLA Sanjeev Jha, went to the house of Pooja Sharma who also provided a sample but found it locked. Jha said Pooja’s husband is member of Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.
“I am saddened to see such misuse of power. You (Paswan) have taken a water sample from your own party official’s house and spread fear among residents of Delhi. Such an act does not suit a Union Minister. Why did you lie to the people of Delhi? Being a Union Minister, why did you do such a huge fraud with the people?” said Kejriwal in a series of tweets. Sunil Kumar of Mukundpur area since 1992 said “I complained about dirty water being supplied to us around two weeks ago. It has been fixed. There is no complaint.”
Tiwari writes to Kejriwal
State BJP chief Manoj Tiwari shot a letter to CM Kejriwal claiming that people were “deeply scared” and “terrified of drinking the water supplied in the city.”