Vijay Goel exposes Kejriwal government’s failure to address water crisis in Delhi

If at all there is anything that the Aam Aadmi Party can be famous for, it’s for their failed promises. Ahead of the 2015 Delhi elections, the party had released its manifesto with 70 tall promises. 4 ½ years after that, and 67 of those promises have remained unfulfilled, with remaining 3 neither here nor there. Out of the numerous issues faced by the citizens in Delhi, water crisis is a leading one and not only has the Delhi government failed to fulfill its promise to provide clean water to all but has actually worsened the situation. Vijay Goel, president of the BJP Delhi unit, has had to take matters in his own hands and has demanded pro-active action from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

According to a report by ToI, the capital requires 1,140 million gallons of water every day (MGD). Out of this demand, only 936 MGD is provided by the DJB. This deficiency of 204 MGD means lakhs of people are rendered without access to water, a huge misery for them which has only increased with the summer season. A large number of people living in jhuggi clusters and villages rely on bore wells or tankers for their daily needs. In such a situation, with the DJB tanker coming once or twice a week and women having to wait for 2-3 hours for the water, private tankers remain the only option. The private tankers, known as the water mafia call the shots and families have to shell out Rs. 600-1000 for a tanker. Moreover, out of the 936 MGD provided, 110 MGD is the sub-surface water which is expected to run out by the year 2020.

In this regard, MP Vijay Goel has taken to the streets to interact with the people and understand their woes.

Through the interaction, Vijay Goel realized that Delhi citizens aren’t getting any water, paid or otherwise. Moreover, the water that is available to them is very dirty.

Thereafter, a delegation of MLAs led by Vijay Goel had decided to meet the Delhi Jal Board CEO on the issue of the crisis on 11th June. They staged a sit-in demanding that the board find an immediate solution to water woes of the national capital. In response to this, the DJB officials locked doors to prevent the delegation from moving up to the CEO’s room.

Vijay Goel stated, “They have no clue as to how many complaints they have received. They don’t have any knowledge about the areas where people have been getting contaminated water or no water at all. They have no plans to resolve the crisis. We have gheraoed the CEO office, will not let him leave tonight.”

All this is in spite of AAP’s manifesto promise of providing “Water as a Right” to every individual in Delhi. Moreover, the DJB was to be amended to ensure clean drinking water to all.

According to the Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) report, “Over 1,65, 745 complaints were registered by the DJB in the year 2017 itself. Despite this, the issue of water supply had only gone bigger in 2018. Despite the number of complaints registered, only 29 issues related to the problem were raised in the Delhi Assembly by the AAP MLAs during the last year. This highlights the insensitive attitude of the AAP government towards the basic needs of residents. The contaminated water is leading to several diseases as well as there was a total of 6,22,480 diarrhea cases in 2016. Moreover, sewage-related complaints have also increased by 14% from 2015-2017.”

This has also utterly failed as according to the PPRC report, “Maximum of the poor households don’t have a metered connection for the supply of water.” Thereby, negating the possibility of providing free lifeline water.

According to the PPRC report, “Instead of providing the transparent and fair water pricing, the government has confused the residents of Delhi with multiple tariff policies. The fixed charges have been hiked by the AAP government several times. There have been many cases in which people have received bills which are of far greater value than in previous times.”

According to the PPRC report, “The National Green Tribunal rapped the Delhi government for its failure to install rainwater harvesting system in schools and colleges. 929 schools under Delhi Govt. have been fined Rs 5 lakh each by NGT for not harvesting rainwater.”

According to the PPRC report, “There hasn’t been any transparent tanker distribution system in the last four years. Mafia of private tankers has significantly increased in the last four years of the AAP government. People are now being exploited because of the heavy prices of the tankers and private suppliers of water.”

Water is a basic necessity in life and if the AAP government fails to provide that, they can’t be expected to ensure anything. They have established themselves once on the basis of tall promises but now their underperformance is visible to all. Handing out freebies will not get them out of this situation. Citizens of Delhi want their basic right to life, and unless the AAP government can answer to that, their return is highly unlikely.