As Delhi reels under water crisis, AAP leader and Water Resources Minister Atishi has written to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora seeking police patrol to stop water theft. This comes as the BJP took a jab at the government, urging it to fix theft by tanker mafia and leakages rather than "indulging in melodrama."
According to the Delhi Government, the national capital is facing a shortage of 70 million gallons per day (MGD) in production due to a lack of raw water in the Munak Canal and Wazirabad reservoir.
In the letter addressed to Arora on Sunday, Atishi requested the deployment of police personnel to "patrol and protect our major pipelines for the next 15 days to stop miscreants or people with ulterior motives from tampering with water pipelines which have now become Delhi's lifelines."
"At this juncture, any foul play and sabotage will worsen the already difficult water shortage being faced by the people of Delhi," she wrote.
She added that the Delhi Jal Board has patrolling teams for main water distribution networks that carry raw water to water treatment plans and to the underground reservoirs. "Yesterday, our ground patrolling team reported a major leakage in our South Delhi Rising Mains - the main water pipeline that carries water from Sonia South Vihar Water Treatment Plant to South Delhi. This was near the DTL substation in Garhi Medhu. Our patrolling team found several large 375 mm bolts and one 12-inch bolt had been cut from the pipeline causing leakage. The fact that several large bolts seem to have cut indicates foul play and sabotage," she said.
The AAP MLAs had written to Union Jal Shakti minister C R Patil on Saturday seeking his intervention to solve the water crisis in Delhi. The MLAs reached the residence of Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil at his BD Marg residence in Delhi on Monday. However, they claimed they could not meet the minister.
"It is unfortunate that we gave a letter to Minister CR Patil yesterday and today our delegation visited his residence to meet him but we are getting the information that he is not at his residence. We want to request the minister to pay attention to the issue of water shortage in Delhi," AAP MLA Rakhi Birla.
However, the BJP questioned the AAP MLAs for approaching the Union water minister when the Supreme Court said only the Upper Yamuna River Board could give extra water to Delhi. It said the AAP needed to fix the water theft by tanker mafia and leakages that account for up to 70 per cent of water produced in the city.
The ruling AAP has accused the BJP-ruled Haryana of stopping Delhi's share of Yamuna water. Atishi has claimed that water production in the city has gone down because of the adequate availability of raw water from Yamuna.