NEW DELHI: Even as a major part of the national capital is facing a severe flood situation causing hardships to thousands of people living in low-lying areas along the Yamuna river, the political blame game continued between the Delhi government and other agencies over release of excess water from Haryana’s Hathnikund Barrage.
Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that the BJP has been continuously lying, after seven days its Haryana government has accepted that it controls ITO barrage. He added that earlier the administration of Delhi & Haryana region was under the Punjab government and when Haryana was carved out, ITO Barrage was handed over to them.
“In 2021, the Delhi government had written to Haryana that the ITO barrage should be handed over to Delhi and we will repair it. In 2022, we had duly informed that the gates of the barrage would not open and there could be floods if more water comes from Hathnikund. Despite receiving several letters from the Delhi government, the Haryana government did not give the ITO barrage to us,” the minister said.
Flood-affected children in queue for food near Mayur Vihar on Sunday | Parveen NegiHe said that now after getting exposed, BJP has found a new excuse that the Delhi government did not maintain the barrage. Addressing the long-standing contentious issue of the ITO barrage on the Yamuna River, Delhi Minister Bhardwaj stated, “It is imperative for the BJP-ruled government of Haryana to take immediate action to transfer the ownership of the ITO barrage rightfully to the Delhi government. Despite being owned by Haryana, the ITO barrage was not adequately maintained, leading to the unfortunate consequence of five barrage gates remaining closed. As a result, the water level of Yamuna surged, causing our regulators to break down resulting in floods here.”
Reacting to AAP’s allegation, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that the root cause of the flood in Delhi is not the water of Hathnikund, it is the corruption of the Kejriwal government, which needs a judicial inquiry. “I demand that Kejriwal tell the people of Delhi why the meeting of the apex committee, which is mandatory to be held by June under the Flood Control Order, has not been held for the last 2 years. Kejriwal should answer today, “Isn’t it true that if money had been spent on cleaning Yamuna, the river would have had depth to flow? If its submergence area would have been clean, then flood water would not have come into urban areas,” he said.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had on Saturday said politics shouldn’t be done over the issue. “The flood is a natural calamity and politics should not be done on it. We cannot control the water in the barrage. Water will automatically release from the barrage once it crosses the limit. The Yamuna had 1 lakh cusecs of water, which suddenly increased to 3.70 lakh cusecs the next day. We have told Kejriwal that we can control a limited amount of water in the barrage,” Khattar had said.
