City s water woes CM accuses Paswan of spreading lies fear

  • | Wednesday | 20th November, 2019

He is also saying he is satisfied with the water quality. The Centre has nominated two experts from BIS for joint inspection of water samples. Kejriwal had earlier accused the central ministers of playing "dirty politics" and scaring people by saying that the city's drinking water is poisonous. He had said Delhi's water quality cannot be ascertained on the basis of just 11 samples. Uncontrolled panic has set in Delhi, people are terrified of drinking the water you are supplying."

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday of spreading lies and misleading people on the issue of drinking water quality in Delhi, days after a Bureau of Indian Standards report said all samples collected from the city failed quality analysis. Kejriwal retweeted a TV news clip in which a person, whose address featured on the list of places from where the BIS collected water samples, can be seen telling the media that theres no issue with the quality of drinking water and no sample had been taken from his home. Targeting Paswan, he tweeted, "Sir, you said a sample had been collected from this persons house and it failed (quality analysis), but this man says no specimen was taken from his residence. He is also saying he is satisfied with the water quality. Why did you tell such a big lie?" Later, the AAP MLA from Burari, Sanjeev Jha, alleged that the BIS also collected a sample from the house of a woman whose husband is the vice-president of Paswans Lok Janshakti Party. Reacting to it, Kejriwal said hes disheartened to see such "misuse of power to spread fear among the residents of Delhi". Earlier during the day, the chief minister nominated two members — Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Vice Chairman Dinesh Mohaniya and Member, Water, Shalabh Kumar — for a joint inspection and testing of water samples in the national capital with the Centre. The decision comes after a Bureau of Indian Standards report said all 11 samples collected from Delhi failed quality analysis on 19 parameters and the citys water was the most unsafe among 21 state capitals. Paswan later wrote to Kejriwal, saying since Mohaniya is a "political person", he may "nominate a non-political person in his place". Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan had challenged Kejriwal to name people for a team, comprising city and central officials, to test the water. The Centre has nominated two experts from BIS for joint inspection of water samples. On Tuesday, the Delhi government said it would set up 32 teams to collect water samples from each ward in the national capital, test them and put the results in public domain within a month. Kejriwal had earlier accused the central ministers of playing "dirty politics" and scaring people by saying that the citys drinking water is poisonous. He had said Delhis water quality cannot be ascertained on the basis of just 11 samples. The DJB had said that between January 1 and September 24, it collected 1,55,302 samples. Of these, only 2,222 — around 1.5 per cent — failed. Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari sent a letter to Delhi CM alleging that people were "deeply scared" and "terrified of drinking the water supplied in the city which a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) report had found to be "poisonous". Tiwari wrote in the letter, "Since the BIS report found that the drinking water being supplied by Arvind Kejriwal government is poisonous, people of Delhi are deeply scared. Uncontrolled panic has set in Delhi, people are terrified of drinking the water you are supplying." He claimed that he has received calls and met people who are worried about the safety of their family members, especially children. "People from many parts of Delhi are coming forward to report that their tap water stinks, sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between the smell of sewage and water that you are supplying as drinking water," the Delhi BJP chief alleged.

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