Delhi Water Crisis: The Congress on Saturday launched a 'matka phod' protest amid a prevailing water crisis in the national capital. Several Congress workers protested against the Delhi government as people struggled for access to water and are depended on tankers for several days now.
Speaking on the situation, a Congress worker said, "The public is being cheated in the name of water... Poor people are suffering the most... The governments are playing the blame game... Why was water not arranged in advance ?... They were busy doing politics... The Congress party will hold a 'matka phod' protest in Delhi to wake up the deaf and dumb government... They have connived with tanker mafia..."
Yadav alleged the Delhi government has not taken effective steps to address the water shortage due to which people, including women, children and the elderly, are forced to run after water tankers to fill a bucket. The Congress and AAP contested the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections 2024 as members of the opposition's INDIA bloc but failed to win even a single seat out of a total of seven. Like in 2014 and 2019, in 2024 too, the BJP registered a clean sweep.
The Delhi Congress will hold a "matka phod" protest in all 280 blocks of the national capital from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday to highlight the plight of the people, thirsting for drinking water, Yadav said.
"Thousands of Congress workers, locals, former MPs, ex-MLAs, district and block Congress presidents, municipal councillors, ex-corporators and others participated in the demonstrations," he said.
Alleging that 58 per cent of potable water was going to waste, the Delhi Congress chief claimed that had the Delhi government taken effective steps to plug the loopholes, people would not have faced such a severe crisis.
People have been complaining of dirty water through taps but the Delhi Jal Board did not take any step to address this, he said.
Yadav claimed that water tankers do not reach many areas and people have to spend over Rs 100 daily to purchase drinking water.
Delhi Water Minister Atishi on Friday said water production in the national capital is decreasing continuously as less water is reaching the Yamuna river. The AAP government has been accusing BJP-ruled Haryana of not releasing Delhi's share of water.
Sharing data, she said water production on June 6 was 1,002 million gallons per day (MGD) which declined to 993 MGD the next day and 990 MGD on June 8.
It was 978 MGD on June 9 and 958 MGD the next day. On June 11, June 12 and June 13, water production was 919 MGD, 951 MGD and 939 MGD, respectively, the minister added.
With inputs from PTI
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