After Atishi, four Cabinet ministers of the Kejriwal Government, including Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot, and Imran Hussain, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his intervention to ensure Delhi its full share of water.

In view of the worsening water crisis in the city, the ministers also approached Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena urging him to visit the Wazirabad barrage with them to verify how much water Haryana is releasing for Delhi.

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The ministers had resolved to seek the prime minister’s intervention and conduct a joint inspection with the LG during a meeting they held at Atishi’s ‘Jal Satyagraha’ protest site in Bhogal. It was Gopal Rai who highlighted the urgency for PM’s involvement given the drastically reduced supply from Haryana resulting in an acute shortage of water in the city.

The meeting of the minister was convened given the continuously deteriorating health of Atishi as her indefinite hunger strike entered day 4 on Monday.

The AAP leaders asserted that contrary to LG’s claim that Haryana was complying with the stipulated target of water supply, the state BJP government has curtailed Delhi’s supply by 100 MGD, leaving the Yamuna nearly dried at Wazirabad.

Addressing a press conference here, Rai alleged that the Haryana government was withholding the rightful share of water due to Delhi’ites. Briefing media persons, he said the situation arising from the water crisis had been discussed in the meeting.

He asserted that under the leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi government has undertaken many works for water management. New pipelines were laid for smooth supply of water to large areas of the city, especially unauthorised colonies.”

He regretted that at a time when Delhi was experiencing an unprecedented heat wave, it was not getting the water due to it from Haryana. The neighbouring state is releasing 100 MGD less water.

Delhi is supposed to get 1,005 MGD of water every day going by an agreement reached 30 years ago when the population of the city was about 1 crore. The minister lamented that the same amount of water is given to Delhi even though the city’s population of Delhi has risen to three crore over the years.

“We have tried everything possible but failed to resolve the issue,” he rued. He pointed out that Delhi Water Minister Atishi wrote to the PM informing him about the situation arising from the severe water crisis in Delhi. She even wrote to the chief ministers of Haryana, UP, and Himachal Pradesh. But no help is forthcoming.

Rai said the PM should intervene in the matter for the sake of the people of Delhi who too are the citizens of the country. He won’t find it difficult to help Delhi in its hour of need as there is a double-engine BJP government in Haryana.

“We appeal to the LG to fix a time for a joint visit on Tuesday so that we could check on the ground and verify the reports that are coming to us and the LG on the water supply. If less water is being released, we would ask the Haryana government to release adequate water to Delhi so that lakhs of people of Delhi don’t have to suffer,” Rai said.

Speaking on the occasion, another cabinet, Minister Gahlot, said the LG should not have any objection to visiting Munak Canal or Wazirabad Pond with the officials and checking if enough water is being received by the city.