 "Kejriwal, Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM, VK Saxena")
Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after an Aam Aadmi Party minister, Atishi, sent a note to him seeking suspension of the Delhi Jal Board Chief Executive Officer over a murder triggered by a water dispute in the national capital.
"It has become habitual on the part of your ministers to blame officers for their own fault," he wrote.
On Sunday, Atishi had asked the L-G to suspend the official following the murder of a woman in Shahdara after an alleged fight with neighbours over filling up water from a common tap.
"Atishi has ironically indicted her own government of more than nine years. Her note indeed is a prima facie admission of guilt, inaction, and inefficiency," Saxena said.
Delhi LG VK Saxena writes an open letter to CM Arvind Kejriwal, raising questions on water supply-related issues. pic.twitter.com/AO9dzRrXWi
— ANI (@ANI) April 16, 2024
He said that Kejriwal's government deceived the people by "creating a chimera of free water."
"Instead of fixing the inequitable water supply, you and your ministers created a chimera of free water. Deception of people has been mastered into an art form by you and your ministers," he said.
Saxena also highlighted that the percentage of "unaccounted for water" – a total of water leakages by transmission and distribution losses, water theft, and non-payment of dues – has seen a sharp uptick to 58 per cent in 2022-23 from 45 per cent in 2015.
"I truly wonder the purpose of installation of flow meters which were procured for more than Rs 250 crore, if they were unable to plug these leakages," the letter read.
He also pointed out the "deplorable" quality of the water supply in Delhi. "Poor water quality impacts people living on the margins of society most adversely. This reflects the priority that the government accords to the poorest of the poor," he said.
Saxena claimed that out of about 25 million people in the city, "more than 20 million (over 80 per cent) people are deprived of drinking water supply in varying degrees."
"It simply points to the fact that there has been no effort whatsoever during the last ten years for plugging the leaks and we seem to be spending thousands of crore in pumping water into a leaking bucket," he said.
