Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today commissioned the Bawana Water Treatment Plant and Underground Reservoir in Outer Delhi's Bawana at an event marked by protests by some villagers over supply of dirty drinking water.
A group of 30-odd women from the nearby Sannoth village virtually forced Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to cut short his speech as they sought the intervention of Kejriwal in resolving their "long-standing" grievances.
After a minor ruckus, Kejriwal worked out an on-the-spot solution to placate the villagers as he had a word with Delhi Jal Board CEO Vijay Kumar, who was also present on the occasion.
"AAP has done in two months (commissioning the plant) what BJP and Congress couldn't in 12 years," Kejriwal said.
The 20 million gallons daily (MGD) capacity plant was constructed in 2003, but remained non-functional because of the lack of availability of raw water.
"Initially, 6 MGD is being made operational. But it will go up to 10 MGD in a week and soon it will work at full capacity. Nearly 6 lakh people in areas such as Sultanpur Dabas, Madanpur Dabas and Nizampur will be benefited," the chief minister announced.
Earlier, waving a number of plastic bottles filled with dirty water, which they claimed was supplied by DJB, the villagers along with the residents of a nearby JJ colony demanded the supply of clean drinking water.
"We had to resort to this move as untreated water is being supplied to us for the last 15 years. People often fall sick and develop serious kidney ailments. Moreover, the plant was built on our land, so we are entitled to clean water," said Kamala, a Sannoth resident.
Kejriwal told the protesters that an iron treatment plant would come up in the area in the next six months and, as a stop-gap measure, treated water from the Bawana plant would be supplied to them although it falls "under the Narela constituency".
