Atishi alleges 'foul play' in water leakage, urges CP to deploy cops to patrol major pipelines

Alleging foul play in the leakage of water pipelines, Delhi’s water minister Atishi on Sunday wrote a letter to the city's Commissioner of Police (CP) Sanjay Arora and urged him to deploy police personnel to patrol and protect major pipelines in the national capital for the next 15 days.

In the letter, she said Delhi is reeling under a severe heat wave and a water crisis.

There is a huge shortage of water in many areas of Delhi. The supply of drinking water has become a major problem here. The situation is such that people have to wait on the roads for tankers in the scorching heat. Long queues of people can be seen to fill water when tankers arrive.

To overcome this shortage, emergency borewells have been done at many places and the help of tankers is also being taken. Dozens of areas in Delhi are currently facing water shortages. Water has almost run out in 'Wazirabad Pond', a major centre supplying drinking water in Delhi. Atishi herself gave information about this acute shortage of water in the national capital on Saturday.

Sharing a copy of her letter addressed to the Police Commissioner, Atishi said that the Delhi Jal Board ground patrolling team reported a major leakage in South Delhi Rising Mains -- the main water pipeline that carries water from Sonia Vihar WTP to South Delhi -- since several large 375 mm bolts and one 12 inch bolt had been cut from the pipeline causing the leakage.

“The fact that several large bolts had been cut seems to indicate foul play and sabotage. Our maintenance team worked for 6 hours continuously and repaired the leakage, but this meant that we had to stop pumping water for 6 hours and 20 MGD of water was not pumped during this time. As a consequence a further 25 per cent of water shortage will be experienced in South Delhi,” she added.

The water minister said that deploying police personnel would be very important for putting a stop to miscreants or people with ulterior motives for tampering with water pipelines which have now become Delhi's lifelines.

She further said that due to the shortage of water being received in the Yamuna, water production has fallen by around 70 MGD and many parts of Delhi are experiencing water shortage.