Delhi Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam believes “officials” are involved in “suppressing” facts pertaining to alleged water supply shortage and cases of inflated bills before the municipal polls.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which was tasked with probing the issue that AAP claims was behind its MCD poll debacle, has submitted its report to Gautam last week, but the minister is not impressed with the findings.
Gautam has now written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urging him to rope in the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) to look into the matter.
“I have forwarded the DJB report to the chief minister. I have written to him that I am not satisfied with the findings. It seems officials are trying to cover up the issue. I want the DDC to look into the matter,” Gautam told PTI.
Kapil Mishra, who was sacked as water minister over his “non-performance”, has demanded that the report be made public.
In a blogpost, Mishra said the DJB report makes it clear that the AAP’s allegations that he had “deliberately manufactured a water crisis and put out inflated bills” before the polls are “baseless”.
“Does Kejriwal have the courage to make the report public?” Mishra asked.
{{/usCountry}}“Does Kejriwal have the courage to make the report public?” Mishra asked.
{{/usCountry}}According to Gautam, the report attributes the shortage in some areas to the rise in demand with the onset of summer, while consumers receiving accumulated dues have been identified as the factor behind the inflated bills.
“If there is no shortage of water then there should not have been any crunch. And secondly, why there was no crisis in May, the peak of summer? And in the second case, why were bills not given to consumers regularly when bills are supposed to be issued every two months?” Gautam said.
Earlier, the Minister had stated that instances of “irregularities” will surely be looked into, but he has “no ill intention to target anyone just for the heck of it”, when asked if would act against Mishra.