
NEW DELHI: From BJP’s dramatic targeting of Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi poll campaign to Chief Minister Atishi flagging the toxic nature of Yamuna in his defence and the Delhi Jal Board CEO dismissing the ‘poison in Yamuna’ claim to Haryana CM drinking the ‘poisoned’ water, Delhi’s riverine lifeline has not only become a key election and health issue for the voters, but the chief campaign prop for political parties.
It doesn’t end there. Amid the war of words and the heated battle over the Yamuna issue, the Congress also jumped into the blame game. Afer AAP supremo Kejriwal dared Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Home Minister Amit Shah to drink the Yamuna water, the Congress leader turned the tables and posed the same challenge to Kejriwal on Wednesday.
The former chief minister has alleged that ammonia levels in the water supplied to Delhi were around 3 pm but spiked to 7 pm after January 21. He presented this as ‘evidence’ to back his claim that it was a conspiracy to disrupt the functioning of Delhi’s water treatment plants and create public outrage against AAP.
In his response to the Election Commission, Kejriwal has repeated the charge that the water from Haryana was “highly contaminated and extremely poisonous”. He has written he saw the matter only as an “urgent public health crisis”.
He has claimed the water received from BJP-ruled Haryana was “extreme” to the extent that Delhi water treatment plants were unable to bring down the contamination to permissible levels.
Following this, the Election Commission of India sought a response from the Haryana government on allegations about increased ammonia levels in the water supplied from Haryana to Delhi, which had purportedly disrupted water availability in the city.
Chief Minister Atishi claimed 30 percent of Delhi’s residents were at risk of water shortage because of the high ammonia content the in Yamuna river. She stated, “The ammonia-laden water has pushed three major water treatment plants in Delhi—Wazirabad, Chandrawal, and Okhla—to the brink of shutdown.”
Delhi, haryana blame game
In 2018, the Supreme Court directed the Chief Secretaries of Delhi and Haryana to resolve water disputes.
In 2021, the Delhi government accused Haryana of withholding Yamuna water, Haryana countered that Delhi’s crisis was due to “internal mismanagement.”
In July 2023, floods in Delhi led to fresh accusations, with the Delhi Government claiming Haryana deliberately released excess water from the Hathnikund Barrage.
In June 2024, Delhi CM accused Haryana of “conspiring against Delhi” and launched an indefinite hunger strike