On Sunday, BJP national spokesperson RP Singh lashed out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the current flood scenario in the national capital, accusing the ruling party of attempting to disguise its failure to deal with the water crisis.
This comes after the AAP accused the NDA leadership at the Centre and the BJP-ruled Haryana of plotting to flood the national capital by releasing water from the Hathnikund Barrage. Speaking to ANI on Sunday, Singh said that instead of blaming the BJP for the Capital’s continuing floods, the AAP should come clean about the’scam’ that occurred in the name of Yamuna cleaning.
“They(AAP) are making such unfounded allegations against us in a desperate bid to hide their failure. They were supposed to clean the Yamuna but they did not. If they had ensured proper cleaning of the Yamuna on time, the situation in the national capital wouldn’t have come to this. They should talk about the scam that took place in the name of Yamuna cleaning,” the BJP leader said.
Singh was respondng to Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Atishi accusing the Haryana government of deliberately releasing water from the Hathinikund barrage to flood the national capital.
“From Hathnikund barrage, water is release to three states — Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The big question that is on eveyone’s lips is why was all the water from the Hathnikund barrage released only towards Delhi. Even as the release of water from Haryana saw the Yamuna cross the danger mark and inundate several parts of the national capital, not a single drop of water was diverted to UP. Why? Is it because Haryana government did not want to cause flooding in UP, as it is also a BJP-ruled state? The BJP must answer. Was this a conspiracy against the people of Delhi?” Atishi, also the Delhi Revenue Minister, said.
Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who, too, had levelled similar accusations at the BJP earlier, on Saturday questioned the Haryana government over the water not being released to the other states, especially the eastern canal which goes to UP.
“The Hathnikund barrage diverts water to three different canals — eastern canal, western canal and to the Yamuna. The water of the western canal comes to Delhi so they keep releasing water into it and the same with Yamuna. But they are not releasing water into the eastern canal which goes to UP. What is the reason for this? This is a conspiracy against Delhi. The BJP-led central government is conspiring to flood Delhi,” he told ANI.
“It hasn’t rained in Delhi since July 10, but the national capital is still flooded. Water is deliberately being diverted to Delhi,” Bharadwaj added.
Hitting back at the Delhi government, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said that his government is not “blaming” anyone though, it, too, was receiving water from other states.
Meanwhile, the blame game between the Delhi and Haryana governments over the situation in the national capital continued, with Haryana Agriculture Minister Jai Parkash Dalal stating that the deluge was caused by encroachments and illegal establishments in the National Capital.