New Delhi: Attacking the AAP government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that there is dissatisfaction among people in the national capital over “unclean” drinking water and added that this is a worrisome issue.
“You must have seen. In Delhi these days, there was so much awareness regarding water and also dissatisfaction (over its quality). There is a concern all over that Delhi is the national capital and yet drinking water is unclean. This has become a worrisome issue,” Mr Modi said.
The Prime Minister was speaking during the launch of the Atal Jal Mission here. This is the second time this week that the Prime Minister has attacked the AAP government over water quality in Delhi, where elections are due early next year.
At a rally on Sunday, Mr Modi had said the Delhi government has kept its eyes closed towards the biggest problem of the city, which is drinking water. “The reality is that the highest number of water purifiers are sold in Delhi in the country. Those who cannot buy water purifiers drink bottled water,” Mr Modi had said.
Reacting to Mr Modi’s statement on Wednesday, Dinesh Mohaniya, the vice chairman of Delhi Jal Board, said the Prime Minister should give exact locations if there is any issue related to water quality. Mr Mohaniya said that during a recent drive, the DJB collected over 4,200 water samples from across the national capital and more than 98 per cent of them were found fit for drinking.
“If the Prime Minister feels there is any issue related to water quality, he should give us the exact locations... We will address them,” he said.
In November, the Centre and the city government engaged in a war of words after Union consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan released a Bureau of India Standards report that said water samples collected from 11 places in the city failed quality tests on 19 parameters.
Mr Mohaniya had earlier claimed that the BIS report was “meant to create chaos ahead of the elections in the city and to serve the commercial interests of the RO manufacturers”.
