During the winter session in Rajya Sabha today, the quality of Delhi water became a bone of contention for the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as members of both the parties clashed in the upper house today over the quality of water being piped to households in the national capital, prompting an angry response from Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu who asked members to maintain decorum.

As BJP’s Vijay Goel was was making his submission during the Zero Hour on the quality of water in Delhi, and began speaking on the “poor quality and unsafe water” in Delhi, AAP’s Sanjay Singh started countering him with raised voice.

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In his Zero Hour submission on Friday, Goel said quality of water supplied in Delhi is a matter of concern as most households either use ROs to filter it or consume bottled water.

“Delhi needs 3,800 million litres of water a day but in absence of adequate supplies, residents have to depend on borewells to serve their needs. As much as 40 per cent of the water piped in the city is being wasted during transmission due to leakage and theft, he said, adding 25 per cent of the habitation particularly unauthorised colonies had no water pipelines. Sale of air purifiers and ROs in Delhi would bear testimony to the quality of water and air in the national capital,” he said.

On the AAP countering the report of water samples tested by the Union Consumers Affairs Ministry, he said Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has suggested that teams of officials drawn from the Centre and Delhi government be constituted for collecting samples and testing.

He questioned the delay in constituting such teams. Geol was constantly countered by AAP’s Singh only to be overruled by Naidu.

Member of Rajya Sabha from Delhi Sanjay Singh on Thursday said Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has lied and misused his post and is not “eligible” to be a Minister.

Speaking to the media on behalf of Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Singh said the report on water released by Paswan on November 16 was fabricated and based on fake investigation.

“By misusing his ministerial position, Paswan has proved that he is not eligible to become a minister, he should resign from his post and apologize to the people of Delhi for spreading lies,” Singh told the media.

On November 16, the Central government released a study on quality of piped drinking water being supplied in 21 cities across the country, including Delhi, with the tap water here termed “undrinkable”.

Reacting to it, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party said BJP’s Central Government is “stooping too low by doing politics on water quality after they failed miserably in controlling air pollution in entire northern India”.

(With agency inputs)