AAP junks Delhi water quality report, calls Paswan's claims 'irresponsible'

In a statement released by the chief spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party, Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP has rejected the water quality report released by Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan. "We Challenge the BJP's Central government and its Minister Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan to pick water samples from Delhi and cities ruled by BJP in our presence and send it for audit to a neutral agency," said Bharadwaj in a statement.

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Saurabh Bharadwaj further accused the BJP government of doing low-level politics on water quality after they failed to control air pollution. "The BJP's Central Government is stooping too low by doing politics on water quality after they failed miserably in controlling air pollution in entire Northern India.

How is Mr. Paswan making such irresponsible claims when only in the month of September, Union Jalshakti Minister Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had on record stated that water quality of Delhi is better than European standards. Mr. Paswan should have checked with the concerned Union Ministry before making such a wild claim, which is not only irresponsible but smacks of clear political bias," the MLA from Delhi's Greater Kailash constituency.

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Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today released a report on a test conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry. It tested 10 samples in each city to see if they met the Indian Standard 10500:2012 (Specification for Drinking Water). While releasing the report, Paswan said "Mumbai tops ranking released by the BIS for quality of tap water. Delhi is at the bottom, with 11 out of 11 samples failing on 19 parameters. We were getting complaints regarding water from all over the country. We asked for some samples of water from Delhi. The tap water from Delhi did not meet the Indian standards. Later, we asked for water samples from all state headquarters."

The ministry, later on, released an official statement on water quality in Delhi which reads, "In the city of Delhi, all the 11 samples drawn did not comply with the requirements of the Indian Standard. The samples failed in several of the parameters. All the 10 samples drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with the requirement."

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BJP hits back

While reacting on Saurabh Bharadwaj's remarks, Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said, "You see Saurabh Bharadwaj is the same man who had once tried to demonstrate how EVM could be hacked during a special session of Delhi Assembly and the machine which he used was duplicate. This party makes a statement as per it's convenience, if any agency reveals a report which goes against them then they call it anti-AAP and pro-BJP agency.

The question is why the water quality of Delhi is so poor. Before making such allegations, Saurabh must introspect where the AAP government has gone wrong. If you are wrong then you must amend your mistakes instead of doing politics on this. It's important to provide clean water to the people of Delhi. BIS is an independent body that has done its job by putting the actual facts before people and now AAP is busy in mudslinging which is really shocking."

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