Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini will file a defamation suit against former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal after the latter claimed that the Haryana government was poisoning Yamuna water by dumping industrial waste in it. Meanwhile, the BJP will also visit the Election Commission of India (EC) to file a complaint against Kejriwal.
Earlier, CM Saini advised Kejriwal to focus on governance rather than making accusations. He said that Kejriwal has a habit of making allegations and running away. "He (Arvind Kejriwal) talks about Ammonia. He claims scarcity of water - but there is no scarcity; there is an issue in the distribution system. He cannot manage the distribution of water in 10 years, even though he promised it, still, people are getting polluted water," Saini said.
"It is his (Arvind Kejriwal) nature and thinking to allege and then run away. There's a saying, 'thooko aur bhago (spit and run)'. This is what Kejriwal does. I said that you send your chief secretary and I will ask my chief secretary to check the quality of water at Sonipat from where it (Yamuna) is entering Delhi," Saini added.
Shyam Singh Rana, the minister in the Haryana government, said, "They can send their Chief Secretary or the Chief Engineer and test the water being sent to Delhi, only then should they say anything."
Notably, just days before the polling for the Delhi Assembly elections, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP-led Haryana government had "poisoned" the Yamuna water supplied to Delhi, claiming it could have led to mass casualties.
"BJP's Haryana government has poisoned the water in Yamuna," Kejriwal said in a press conference while claiming that the alertness of Delhi Jal board prevented the mixing of alleged poisoned water with drinking water.
"If this water would have entered Delhi only to be mixed with the drinking water, many people would have died in Delhi. It would have caused mass genocide," the former Delhi chief minister alleged. He further said that the water treatment plants in Delhi were not equipped to treat this kind of polluted water. "It has caused water scarcity in one-third of Delhi," Kejriwal added.
What did Delhi Jal Board CEO say?
After Kejriwal's statement CEO of Delhi Jal Board, Shilpa Shinde wrote to the Chief Secretary and said allegations that Haryana has released poison into raw water reaching Delhi through Yamuna were factually incorrect, without any basis and misleading. Such false statements lead to fear-mongering among Delhi residents and also adversely affect relations with upper riparian states.