 "The controversy started on Monday when Kejriwal told reporters that the BJP had done “something that may never have been done in history.” PTI")
The Yamuna river conflict between Delhi and Haryana has resurfaced.
AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal has accused Haryana’s BJP government of “poisoning” the river in an attempt to “create chaos… hoping the blame will fall” on his party’s administration.
The allegations come ahead of the crucial February 5 Delhi Assembly polls .
Acting on complaints by the BJP leaders, the Election Commission has asked the AAP chief to provide evidence for his allegation.
Here’s all we know about the row.
Haryana ‘poisoning’ Delhi waters
The controversy started on Monday when Kejriwal told reporters that the BJP had done “something that may never have been done in history.”
He claimed the saffron party—in power in Haryana—had added a poisonous substance to the Yamuna river that flows through the state and into the National Capital.
According to reports, the “poison” Kejriwal referred to is ammonia.
“The people of Delhi get drinking water from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh… but the Haryana government has mixed poison in the water coming to Delhi from the Yamuna and sent it here… it is only due to the vigilance of our Delhi Jal Board engineers that this water was stopped,” Kejriwal told reporters.
He added, “It (the allegedly poisoned water) was stopped at the Delhi border… we did not allow it to enter the city. We have seen such things in wars but today, what the BJP did by mixing poison in Delhi’s water supply, is an attempt to create chaos in Delhi, hoping blame will fall on the AAP.”
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi even went so far as to refer to Haryana’s actions as “water terrorism.”
High ammonia levels in the Yamuna have been an issue as the Delhi administration works to guarantee a clean and continuous water supply for the city’s citizens.
According to some estimates, the Capital requires more than 3,000 million litres of water daily, but the average supply is just over 2,000 million litres.
AAP says elevated ammonia levels have made the deficit worse.
Also read: Explained: Why Yamuna froths with toxic foam year after year
‘Kejriwal is a factory of lies’
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has strongly refuted Kejriwal’s claim by saying, “It is their nature and thinking to accuse and run away…”
Additionally, he threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against Kejriwal if he did not apologise.
“Kejriwal has insulted the land where he was born… The people of Haryana consider Yamuna a holy river and worship it. Why would they mix poison in its water?” Saini said.
Backing him was Labour Minister Anil Vij, who said, “Arvind Kejriwal is a factory of lies… take journalists and experts to the place where the Yamuna enters Delhi and check the quality of water. Then check in Delhi… they will see the difference.”
“It is not our job to check clean the river in Delhi… it was Kejriwal’s, which he couldn’t do.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah took a jab as he bathed in the Ganga on Monday during Maha Kumbh.
“He (Kejriwal) promised he would purify River Yamuna in seven years and modify it just like London’s River Thames,” Shah said at a rally, adding, “He even said he would take a dip in the Yamuna in front of Delhiites. Arvind Kejriwal, the people of Delhi are waiting for your world-famous dip in the Yamuna. If not in Yamuna, he can go to the Mahakumbh and take a dip over there to get rid of his sins.”
A Delhi Pollution Control Committee report dated October 2023 claims that some river cleanup initiatives are behind track. The Delhi Development Authority and the Delhi Jal Board’s delays were specifically highlighted in the report submitted to the National Green Tribunal.
Moreover, the CEO of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which provides water to the National Capital, refuted Kejriwal’s assertion.
In a letter to the chief secretary of Delhi, he called Atishi and Kejriwal’s remarks “false” and warned that they could incite fear in others.
Also read: If the Yamuna water is receding, why is Delhi still flooded?
EC seeks evidence
In a meeting with Election Commission (EC) officials on Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and her Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann made claims that the BJP-led Haryana government is purposefully dumping dangerous amounts of ammonia into the Yamuna river, putting Delhi’s water supply at risk.
Atishi had sent two letters to the EC, one on Monday and the second on Tuesday morning, requesting an urgent meeting with the poll panel authorities.
The Election Commission has asked Kejriwal to provide evidence backing his allegation by 8 pm today (January 29).
In response, the EC said in its letter that it was a serious allegation that could create animosity between states and carried a provision of a three-year jail term.
“The electors tend to believe whatever is being said in public by their leaders and in that sense, the statement, if not true, affect the campaign discourse,” the letter read.
The allegations are also “extremely serious in nature and unprecedented,” the letter added.
“If true, this also has serious ramifications of creating enmity between regional groups, residents of neighbouring states, threat of law-and-order situation due to actual or perceived shortage of non-availability of water,” the Commission wrote.
Also read: Yamuna water level at all-time high: How will Delhi-NCR be affected?
Yamuna river and the two states
The current verbal spat is a continuation of the political and legal dispute between the two states over the Yamuna River.
According to Indian Express, in March 1995, the Supreme Court had directed all parties of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure “sufficient water (about 2.5 times of the seasonal allocation) is released for the consumption in Delhi.
Besides Delhi and Haryana, the MoU was signed by three CMs, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh.
Several months later, two contempt petitions were filed before the top court, which it dismissed, and ordered Haryana not to obstruct the supply of water to Delhi.
Water level in the Wazirabad reservoir was dropping, and the DJB moved the apex court again in April 2018. It alleged the city was only getting one-third of its share of Yamuna waters. The court asked the stakeholders to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
After a month, the Haryana government of then-Manohar Lal Khattar promised its Delhi counterpart that if the AAP administration dropped all of the cases in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and other courts pertaining to the water issue, it would supply water until the start of the monsoon.
In 2021, the DJB moved the SC, accusing the Haryana government of wilfully disobeying the 1996 ruling.
The Haryana administration responded, saying the National Capital had “internal mismanagement” issue. The case was dismissed by the top court.
The same issue popped up again in November the same year when then DJB Vice Chairman Raghav Chadha claimed the UP and Haryana were polluting the Yamuna River.
With inputs from agencies