Delhi water quality row: BJP holds protest near Kejriwal's residence

Carrying water samples from various parts of Delhi, BJP members staged a protest near Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Thursday, days after a report said water in the national capital was most unsafe among 21 major Indian cities. Leading the protest, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari alleged Kejriwal was "forcing" people to drink "polluted" water in the name of free supply. He also claimed that despite Kejriwals' promise of providing safe water to the people of Delhi since 2015, they were getting "poisonous" water.

The BJP protesters, including former Delhi BJP presidents Vijender Gupta, Satish Upadhyay and party general secretary Kuljeet Chahal, however could not handover the water samples, collected from 500 places across the city, to the chief minister. According to a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) report released by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on November 16, all water samples collected from Delhi failed quality tests.

The ruling AAP and the BJP are engaged in a row over the quality of water in Delhi. Kejriwal recently claimed that 98.5 per cent of the 1.5 lakh water samples tested by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) between January and October this year were found to be safe.

Addressing the protesters, Vijender Gupta said it was unfortunate that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not call even a single "emergency" meeting to discuss the problem of "unsafe water being supplied" in the city. Kuljeet Chahal alleged that Kejriwal has "failed" to provide safe drinking water to people and he has no right to be in power.