New Delhi [India], May 6 : Bharatiya Janata Party held protest outside the residence of Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on Tuesday over the water dispute between Punjab and Haryana which has also spilled over into the national capital.
Delhi BJP President Virendraa Sachdeva accused the AAP government in Punjab of "stopping" the national capital's water supply and said it was Kejriwal's "revenge" on Delhi's people for defeating him in the Assembly elections.
While speaking to ANI, Sachdeva said, "The Arvind Kejriwal government has stopped the water supply to the people of Delhi. The people here have defeated him, but now he is doing all this to take revenge on the people of Delhi, which is very wrong... Arvind Kejriwal should justify why is he doing so.."
Along with Virendraa Sachdeva, several other BJP leaders, including Manoj Tiwari, Bansuri Swaraj, MLA Shikha Rai, joined the protest outside the residence of Arvind Kejriwal.
Addressing the issue, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj told ANI, "The Arvind Kejriwal-led Punjab government has stopped the water for the people of Delhi...We are here today to demand the rights of the people of Delhi."
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Shikha Rai also reiterated the same demands, "We are here to demand water for the people of Delhi, which has been stopped by the Arvind Kejriwal government, who used to call himself the son of Delhi... We want back the rights of the people of Delhi" she said.
The Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Punjab has strongly opposed the release of water to Haryana, raising concerns over their own limited availability of water.
On Monday, a special session of the Punjab assembly was convened concerning the water dispute between the two states.
Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal moved a resolution in the Punjab Legislative Assembly during a special session, vehemently opposing the Bhakra Beas Management Board's (BBMB) decision to release an additional 8,500 cusecs of water to Haryana.
Punjab has reaffirmed its commitment to its voluntary allocation while firmly refusing Haryana's latest request for 8,500 cusecs from the Bhakra Beas system, arguing that the cited emergency has ended.
Earlier on May 3, an all-party meeting was held under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini regarding the ongoing water sharing dispute between Haryana and Punjab, in which a resolution was unanimously passed in the meeting urging the Punjab government to implement, without conditions, the decisions of the BBMB technical committee.
On April 30, the BBMB ordered an additional 8,500 cusecs of water to be released to Haryana from the Bhakra-Nangal Dam. However, the Punjab government rejected the BBMB's decisions, raising concerns over decreasing water levels in key reservoirs.