LG, Atishi in social media spat over Delhi water crisis

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena and Delhi water minister Atishi were on Wednesday, 12 June, involved in a social media spat over the water crisis.

Atishi in a Hindi post on X said that the LG office today sent a press release to all journalists in Delhi and added, "I have been abused a lot in it. Very bad things have been said about me."

The AAP leader also said in the post that she knew that the LG and the BJP hated Aam Aadmi Party because the Delhi people repeatedly made Arvind Kejriwal the chief minister with a huge mandate.

"....While hating us, you have started hating Delhi people. Abuse us as much as you want, say as many bad things to us. But do not stop the rightful water of Delhi people because of hatred against us. Delhi people are deeply distressed due to shortage of water...," she said in the post.

The minister also said that all people in Delhi will get water if the BJP government in Haryana provides water to Delhi.

The Raj Niwas from its official handle hit back at Atishi saying "Mantriji, LG Saheb did not abuse you. The LG office has refuted your abuses for him and white lies with evidence, and has exposed your habit of misleading the people of Delhi..."

The Raj Niwas post also said that Delhi people still expected Atishi to provide them water by stopping wastage and theft.

The "press release" from the LG office that Atishi referred to accused her of issuing a "patently and blatantly false" statement on Tuesday to blame Haryana for the scarcity of water in the capital and charging the LG with "lies".

Citing the affidavit filed by the Haryana government in Supreme Court on June 10, which Atishi had also referred to on Tuesday to allege that the BJP-ruled state was not providing Delhi its rightful share of water, the LG office said a cursory reading of the document "busts her lies and calumnious statements".

Reacting to the water minster's assertion that Delhi was getting less water from Haryana than agreed upon, the LG office said from the various documents annexed with this status report Haryana submitted in the court, it was evident the capital was getting more water than its allocated share and the quantum has not gone below 1,050 cusecs "not even on a single day".

On Atishi's claim that the repair of the Munak Canal was the responsibility of the Haryana government, the LG office said it is done at the "behest, demand and cost" of the Delhi government.

"During the last 10 years, instead of asking the Haryana govt to repair the lining of the Canal, the Kejriwal govt did not even consider sending an engineer to look at the status of the Canal," the LG office said.

The LG office also said despite knowing that a large-scale water mafia was operational in Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board under AAP never complained to the police about the same or filed an FIR.