New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS): 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 Paty, 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.
Singh said of the 11 places where the samples were collected, Paswan has also mentioned the address of Krishi Bhavan and his own residence, which come under the NDMC area and the water is not supplied by the Delhi government but by the Central government.
"It's unfortunate but the fact is the report on Delhi's water quality as disclosed by Paswan is completely fabricated. He is putting out such statements based on a survey in which samples were collected from 11 different locations of Delhi. But later it was found that the locations in the report are fudged," he said.
"Also, the people who were named in the list have claimed that nobody came to their house to collect any such samples and they are happy with the water quality and Delhi government," Singh added.
The Rajya Sabha MP asked Paswan on whose directions he is "lying and from where did Paswan get the report"
"I want to ask him on whose instructions did Paswan make such a fabricated, orchestrated and fudged report? Being a Central Minister he has betrayed the constitutional principles of this country. Paswan should apologise to the people of Delhi and India and should immediately resign from his post," said Singh.
He also said that every day 500 samples are taken by the Delhi Jal Board from various places in Delhi.
"Between January 1 and 24 September, Delhi Jal Board collected 1,55,302 samples. Out of them only 2,222 samples i.e. only 1.43 per cent failed. In October, the Delhi Jal Board again collected 16,502 samples, of which only 3.98 per cent samples (658) failed and 96.02 per cent (15,844) passed. All these are done by following the WHO standard and Delhi's water meets the WHO standard," SIngh informed.
Meanwhile, the BJP, under the leadership of its Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari, held a protest at the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is also the Delhi Jal Board chief.
Tiwari went to Kejriwal's residence to offer him "drinking water collected from 500 places in Delhi."
"A Chief Minister has come to power in Delhi, who is pushing the people of Delhi towards diseases caused by contaminated water. Clean water is the basic right of every citizen and Kejriwal is trying to snatch that right," Tiwari told 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".