Delhi Water Crisis: Delhi LG VK Saxena Meets AAP Leaders, Assures Support

Delhi Water Crisis: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena assured an AAP delegation that met him here on Sunday over the water crisis in the city that he will try to resolve the issue while stressing the solution lay in cooperation rather than blame game. According to Raj Niwas officials, the MPs and MLAs who attended the meeting primarily requested the L-G to request the Haryana Government for extra water, for a few days, till the rains arrive.

In a statement, the Aam Aadmi Party said the delegation highlighted the shortfall of 113 million gallons per day (MGD) of water from Haryana to Delhi and Saxena has assured them of addressing the issue. A Raj Niwas official said that during the meeting, Saxena reiterated that the share of Yamuna water between Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and other neighbouring states had been fixed by the Upper Yamuna River Board and it was up for renewal in 2025.

The L-G spoke to the Haryana chief minister around 4 pm who assured Saxena that he would seriously look into the matter and try to help tide over the situation to the farthest possible extent, he said. Saxena stressed that the Supreme Court's advice that Delhi could approach Haryana for extra water on humanitarian grounds could fructify only in an atmosphere of cooperation and amicable dialogue, rather than by indulging into accusations, abuse and blame game," the official said.

The Delhi L-G also noted that not only Delhi's population but that of all states have increased proportionately and all were equally affected by the heat wave. Saxena also reiterated that according to the Delhi government's own Economic Survey, unaccounted-for water was to the tune of 54 per cent while 40 per cent of water was wasted.

He underlined that the Delhi government and Delhi Jal Board should address this issue. He told the AAP delegation that Delhi needs to augment its own water storage capacity and assured them that he would take up with the Haryana chief minister the issue of water release on humanitarian grounds, the Raj Niwas official said. The delegation of AAP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and N D Gupta, Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, and MLAs Dilip Pandey, Somnath Bharti, Rajesh Gupta and Rituraj Jha, highlighted the shortfall of 113 MGD in water released by Haryana to Delhi, a statement said.

We informed the L-G that there is a shortage of about 113 MGD of water from Haryana right now. Due to this, lakhs of people in Delhi are facing problems.

"Since L-G is the representative of the central government, we have requested L-G to talk to the Haryana government and get Delhi its full share of water. On this, L-G V K Saxena has assured us that he will talk to the Haryana government and try to get Delhi its full share of water," Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said. He said they also conveyed to the L-G that it will rain in a week.
"It has started raining in Himachal Pradesh. So much water will come in the next week that Haryana will not be able to stop it even if it wants to. So now it is just a matter of a week. We have requested the L-G to try and get water from Haryana for Delhi for a week," Bharadwaj said.