Water crisis will prove to be Congress Waterloo in Delhi

  • 03/04/2008

  • Hindu

Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Saket Vijay Jolly on Wednesday accused the Delhi Government of failing to provide the people with adequate water and said that while Rs.1,800 crore have been spent in the name of cleaning the Yamuna and a lot of money has also been spent on improving the distribution system, the state of the river and 55 per cent loss of water on account of leakage presents a story of neglect and corruption. Speaking under Rule 280, Mr. Jolly began by apologising to the Lieutenant-Governor, the Speaker, the Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition for his conduct during the Lieutenant-Governor's address but said when the pleas of MLAs are ignored by the Government then they have to take recourse to such actions as they are answerable to the electorate. Mr. Jolly said the Delhi Government had failed on all counts when it came to water distribution. "All 53 underground reservoirs were to be completed by 2007 end, but now the deadline has been extended to 2009 end.' Likewise, he said, while heavy leakages deprive people of water, the Delhi Jal Board has also not made plans to meet the peak demand of 1,050 million gallons per day during the summer and reportedly has only 750 MGD to distribute. And while most colonies, especially unauthorised and resettlement ones, along with villages are dependent on water supply through tankers, he said, mostly the water supplied was contaminated and not fit for drinking. He quipped the situation had reached such a state that the water crisis will eventually hit Congress hard and "lead to its Waterloo in Delhi'.