Fix water theft instead of indulging in 'melodrama' over crisis: Delhi BJP to AAP govt

NEW DELHI: The Delhi BJP on Saturday accused the ruling AAP of indulging in melodrama instead of fixing issues of theft and leakages in the pipelines to address water crisis faced by people in the city.

Citing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs' letter to Union Jal Shakti minister C R Patil for his intervention to solve the water crisis in Delhi, state BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said people fail to understand what it will achieve.

"Despite the Supreme Court's directive to the Delhi government to approach the Yamuna River Board for extra water, the Aam Aadmi Party is now creating a new political drama of approaching Union Water Minister C R Patil," the Delhi BJP chief said in a statement.

It is beyond comprehension why the AAP leaders are indulging in "melodrama" over the water crisis in Delhi instead of fixing the issues of water theft by tanker mafia and leakages that account up to 70 per cent of water produced in the city, he said.

"The Delhiites fail to understand why the AAP MLAs are approaching the Union water minister when the Supreme Court has said only Upper Yamuna River Board can give extra water to Delhi," Sachdeva said.

The AAP MLAs have written a letter to Patil urging his intervention to solve the water crisis faced by the national capital amid the prevailing intense heat wave, party's chief whip in Delhi Assembly Dilip Pandey said in a press conference earlier in the day.

The AAP MLAs have also sought time to meet Patil for discussing the water crisis in Delhi.

Sachdeva claimed that Delhi is getting almost full quantity of raw water from Haryana and Uttarakhand, and dared Delhi Water Minister Atishi for a debate over the issue.

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.