Delhi water ‘disease-ridden’, failed BIS test: Manoj Tiwari

NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari on Sunday claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is distributing “disease ridden” water to people of the city.

However, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal rejected Tiwari’s charge and cited a statement by the Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in which Singh had said that Delhi’s water quality is of European standards.

“Whatever else is being said about the quality of Delhi water is politically motivated,” Kejriwal said on the sidelines of a press conference.

Tiwari said that a report released last week by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) “failed” Delhi in a test of water purity.

The BIS investigation of 11 tap water samples collected from various parts of the city shows that the national Capital’s water does not comply with quality, Tiwari claimed.

“In the last 56 months, the [Arvind] Kejriwal government has not been able to give drinking water to the people of Delhi, but in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Delhi, he is misleading the people of Delhi by making false promises,” Tiwari said.

He added, “Kejriwal made false promises to the people of Delhi that water of European standards will be given to the people of Delhi, but the BIS investigation report says that all the samples taken have failed in the test.”

Leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta also supported the allegations by Tiwari.

Responding to a claim by his cabinet colleague Ramvilas Paswan last month that Delhi’s water was not potable as per BIS standards, Shekhawat, as per a PTI report, had said: “This must be his (Paswan’s) opinion. A few months ago, we had checked water samples from 20 locations in Delhi. All were better than European standards.”